Just Eat The Ice Cream
by GreatDarkNoodleKing
Summary: Alternate Universe. Jack, a recent high school grad, is working two jobs. One at a local club, and the other at an ice cream shop. Getting kicked out of his house by his mom was not part of his plan. How was he supposed to work if he had nowhere to stay? Maybe a friendly customer would be willing to lend a hand? (Possible Rating Change)(BlackIce in future chapters) OOC Moments.
1. Introduction

_Shouldn't I be updating one of my seven other stories? Yes. Yes I should. Thank you for reminding me. Now, past my forgetfulness, I'm writing this piece of catnip. Hope you guys don't give two cents why. Cuz even I don't know…_

_**Just Eat The Ice Cream - Introduction**_

Jackson Overland Frost, a young eighteen year old high school graduate, was, as was the norm, skint broke. So, he applied for jobs wherever he could find them. Bouncing from working as a waiter, to a janitor, to a babysitter, he tried to find some way to get a penny in his pocket. Actually, his savings were pretty substantial, but every nickel counts, right? And if you were trying to go into a field without college, you most likely needed enough money to survive on the minimalistic pay they'd provide. Which was how he ended up working as a night-time waiter in a local club… And then how he ended up as a day-time worker in the towns best, favorite, most spectacular, yadda yadda yadda, ice cream shop. (The sign said parlor, but to Jack it was a shop.)

So, during the day he dealt with spoiled, rude kids who begged their parents to take them to get a vanilla ice cream that you could get anywhere. And at night he dealt with rude, obnoxiously drunk adults who went out to try and have a 'good time' at other people's expense. Both jobs paid well, though, so no matter how much he griped, he stuck with 'em.

He trudged through the daily task of spitting out wave after wave of soft serve vanilla ice cream in a regular, practically cardboard, cone and the nightly task of cleaning up vomit while swatting away the unwanted touches of drunk customers. He couldn't wait until he could afford to apply for the job he really wanted. Could not wait.

Nobody ever told him that children could be so awful when it came to food. Normally he absolutely loved kids. But now? He hated every face under the age of thirteen that walked in those doors. It was always the same thing. They'd beg and beg their parents to get them ice cream until their incessant shrieking drove them crazy. And so they decided to drag the whiny brat to his shop to bring the agony onto him as well.

He adored the chances he got to see adults there. And he had previously been in high school- so he was supposed to hate adults! Now he wished only adults could come to the ice cream shop. His exact opposite feeling regarding the club. He wished everyone too young to want alcohol was allowed and none of the older patrons. It was a horrid mix.

He had quickly learned not to mention one job at the other. People at the club would come find him and try to 'pick him up'. Like a cheap date. And then kids would ask their parents what the club was and he'd get dirty looks and words from his manager and blah blah blah. Jack just kept his mouth shut.

Getting kicked out of his house was the worst thing to happen to him. His mom was done dealing with him- he had a little sister in school. So, he was sent to the streets, searching for a place he could actually call a home. He'd crash at friends' houses whenever they'd let him, but he needed something stable. And so far, nothing really was.


	2. Vanilla

_So, I've been gone a long while, and I AM sorry… I wish I had a good excuse, but I really don't… So…_

**Just Eat The Ice Cream—Chapter One: Vanilla**

"My life goes in circles," the teenage boy cleaning the countertops grumbled. His striped orange and pink apron had a few brown stains on it already, just from trying to clean the sticky gross mess that was the counter. The name tag on his chest read Jack and had a goofy ice cream picture with stripes as well. His matching cap barely stayed on his head; the stupid fake ice cream cone that bounced around on top of it didn't help either. He didn't understand why he was required to wear a white shirt and black pants when nobody would notice if he dressed nice- they'd be too busy laughing at the bobbing ice cream.

And what he meant by his life goes in circles? Well, he'd start the day by cleaning, then doing his job, then cleaning again. And after that he would go to his second job, do that job, and end up cleaning all over again. So, if any aspect of his life went in circles it was definitely his work life.

An older man came in with a younger child at that moment. His co-worker, a bubbly blonde haired girl who was known to everyone as Bubbles quickly said to the man, "Sorry, we're closed."

The child with the man began to whimper. Knowing the tantrum that would explode, Jack dropped his wash cloth and moved to the ice cream barrels. "What flavor do you want?" As if he didn't already know. Every little kid was the same. He drawled the answer in his head before the child even said it.

"I want vanilla!"

Rolling his eyes subtly, he asked, "Soft serve or regular?"

"Soft!" the kid chimed, bouncing on his red all-star clad toes. Bubbles frowned at him from the table she was cleaning.

Sighing, Jack just said, "Bubs, you can go home, I'll clean up…" She smiled, dropping her rag purposely loudly and then she punched out and hopped out the front door.

He handed the small boy the vanilla ice cream in the normal cone, because heaven forbid somebody want a waffle cone, and he said, feigning slight happiness, "Here ya go." The kid squealed happily and began devouring the treat. The father smiled and began paying Jack, blatantly ignoring the tip jar just like every other parent that came in. Oh well…

The two then walked out and Jack quickly began cleaning. He had to hurry to get to his second job of the day. Sometimes he searched for a third job, just to make more money so he could finally afford to have an apartment or something.

Once the tables were clear, the counters weren't sticky to the touch, and his card was punched, Jack locked the front doors and went off to quickly run to the club he worked at. He didn't have to change his clothes, which he was happy for, as the uniform was the same at the club, he just had to ditch the apron and cap.

Pushing in through the doors, Jack hung his stuff on his assigned coat rack and rushed to begin setting up for the night. One of his fellow waiters just laughed at him as he sped to clean up his section. Because it would obviously kill him to help instead of laugh at him, right? Jack didn't really care, but it would have been nice to work with people who actually gave a darn.

Nobody ever really ordered anything besides drinks at this club anyway. Most people didn't even sit at their tables. They were either dancing or trying to dance with the dancers who worked here. Occasionally they would have strippers, but that was only every other Friday. And it rotated from male strippers to female each time. Jack was lucky that today was a Tuesday, so either way he wouldn't have to worry about perverts. When the male strippers came for some reason the patrons became hounds. He had been asked many times if he was one of them. He would always reply politely that he was just a waiter, and often times his customer would respond "pity". Pity for who?

And then the night started. The music blared, the lights flashed, and Jack's head throbbed to no end. Why had he forgotten to bring his pain medication? He went from his first table to the bar, then back, then to his second table and back to the bar, and then back to the table again. Honestly it had become routine. The circles were normal.

Once he was done with work, Jack cleaned up, then grabbed his other uniform and hurried to his friend Eric's house. He sighed happily finding the door unlocked. Last time it hadn't been and he had to call and wake the poor guy and his family up. Walking through the house as quietly as he could, Jack made his way to the living room and immediately crashed on the couch.

Only four hours later he had to get back up, Eric's mother was awake and was making noise. Which had become his alarm here. Looking at the clock, he groaned seeing that it was in fact eight am. He had to get back to work in two hours.

"God, my life goes in circles," he said, getting up to wash his face and brush his teeth. He had a small breakfast, just toast and a banana, and then he hurried to get his clothes looking presentable. He put on his other pair of black pants, as he only had two left that were clean enough for the club, and replaced his shirt for another in his cargo bag. Once he was ready, he hurried out the door and down to work. He bought coffee and a bagel on the way, just because he was positive he'd be hungry later, and then tucked his shirt in and pulled the apron on.

He stood behind the counter and began his work all over again. Cleaning and then working. A few people at first, then a lull, then more customers. How many vanillas had he done now? He couldn't count them on his fingers anymore, let's leave it at that.

After a long while, Jack was cleaning again, because nobody new had come in yet. He heard the door, looked up and nearly threw up when he saw it was Eric coming in. He never came by for good news. This could only mean that Jack was being kicked out again.

"Heya Jack," he said, shuffling his hands in his pockets awkwardly, "Listen, my mom's sick of it… Again…"

"Aw, come on, Eric, I don't have anywhere else! You know my mom's not gonna let me come home, and I can't get a hold of Nick, Sands, or Tina. I can't afford a cell phone!" he tried to plead his case, but Eric only sighed.

"Look, Jack, I know, an' I feel bad, but.. Mom's tired of havin' to leave the door unlocked for you. She feels like we're just askin' to get robbed that way. An' she thinks you're not payin' enough to crash at my place…" he said, running his finger along the counter.

"Eric, she's making me pay her almost half my paycheck!" Jack argued, how was that not enough?

"Yeah, well, she's sick of you comin' home at all hours of the night. She says you woke her last night and she's tired of it. So… After your shift… She wants you to come by the house and collect your stuff… Sorry man," Eric said, his bright green eyes showing how sorry he really was, but his stoic Australian face betraying nothing. Jack tried to argue more, but he walked out and didn't even look back.

Face falling, Jack grumbled. "Well that's the third time she's kicked me out," he muttered to himself. Passing by Bubbles, he said, "Bubs, take over for me, I need a coffee." And he walked out the front door to the coffee shop on the corner. Luckily there were three on this street.

He sat and listened to the radio in the shop before heading back. And of course once he returned to the register, everyone and their mother came in. He hauled out seventeen soft serve vanillas in five minutes alone. Would any child ever order anything different?

Once the time to leave came, Jack dreaded stepping out those doors. He would have to go back to Eric's house and collect his things. He didn't have anywhere else to go tonight. He hadn't been expecting this. It was times like these that made him wish he had a cell phone.


	3. Chocolate

_And apparently my computer was nearly attacked by a virus. Yay for the firewall! *does a little dance of safety* Now then, on with the story you doodly doodles!_

**Just Eat The Ice Cream – Chapter Two: Chocolate**

Jack had his backpack over his shoulder and was currently calling friends to see who would be willing to let him crash for a while. Nick wasn't answering. He finally got a hold of his friend Tina, who was more than happy to let him spend at least a week there. He was lucky to have good friends who took such good care of him. He didn't blame Eric for what happened, or his mom, he understood that it can be stressful leaving your door unlocked all night. (Especially when you don't exactly live in the best neighborhood.)

He wouldn't be able to get to her house until after his shift at the club, but Tina didn't mind. She said she'd wait up for him by watching her favorite movies until he showed. He knew which she meant instantly- the Harry Potter series. He knew Tina- she couldn't physically fall asleep during those things, she was too enraptured with the character with the black hair and big nose. It confused him when she told him that she found _him_ cute. What did Jack have in common with that character? Nothing. Tina was just the epitome of a girly girl.

He got to work, hanging his backpack up with his ugly apron, and quickly washed off a mess that had magically appeared on one of his tables. He knew he had cleaned it up the night before, but didn't argue it. It was most likely a prank from one of his co-workers. If he had to guess he'd say it was Ralf, the known prankster amongst the group. (Of course, no one could ever best Jack Frost, king of the practical jokes.)

The night was a long one. He had to clean up seven spills all from one table. He definitely liked the music for the night, though. A new song called "Roar" was blaring. He found himself tapping his foot in time to it every time he waited for his orders. He actually got to serve food tonight! Sure, all they wanted were nachos, but hey, food is food. He bounced between drunken couples and rowdy twenty-one year olds who were too excited to drink. Still going in circles from tables to the bar, though.

His shift finally ended around four in the morning. He hurried to Tina's house after that, trying to rush through the sketchiest parts of town, and tripped when he reached her front porch. Needless to say he scuffed and scraped up his pants.

"Well, great… Now I've gotta buy new ones…" he grumbled to himself. And he wouldn't be able to go on Saturday because that was the busiest day at the ice cream shop, as well as the club. (Maybe second to Friday.) Either way, he'd have to find a day where he'd be allowed to skip out and buy new black pants.

He barely had to knock on the door before Tina flew outside and smothered him in a bear hug of doom. He flailed his arms as she squeezed around his shoulders. "Tina! Tina! Oxygen!"

"Oh, oops," she jumped back after that, fixing her hair and coughing shyly. Jack rolled his eyes at the shy cough and stepped inside. She was in the middle of one of the films; Jack had no idea which, he never really was a fan of all those wizards. He assumed it was a later one.

Tina let him head to the guest room, where he promptly flopped onto the bed and passed out. Didn't even change clothes or cover himself with a blanket, just dropped like a rock.

Tina had to come and wake him. He thanked her, quickly changed his pants and spritzed them with febreeze so that they didn't reek to the high heavens, before rushing to get coffee and a donut.

While he was at work all he could think of was that song from the club. He kept tapping his foot and humming it in his head. He used it as an excuse- every time Bubbles yelled at him he'd go "what? Sorry, I was singing a song in my head, were you saying something?" She got pretty pissed by the fifth time he did it. (Like he cared.) He just hummed and popped out soft serve vanilla after soft serve vanilla.

Only around noon did he get a happy surprise. Nick came in. Jack practically beamed at his tall, chubby friend. (Nick was no spring chicken, either, in fact he was kind of an old man. But he acted like a kid constantly, and that was why everyone loved him so much.) Jack greeted him brightly.

"I want mint chocolate chip and scoop of chocolate!" he announced with his booming Russian voice. Jack laughed and went right to work.

He held it out to him. "Here you are sir!" he emphasized the sir part, because he knew just how Nick would react. The bearded man gasped loudly, enough that the other customers turned and looked at him, and he squeaked about how he had been called sir and how polite this young man at the register was.

"Good to see you too," he said after the showboating was over. He took that time to go on his ten minute break. Bubbles had to take over.

Nick sat with him, smiling. "So, what is up? I saw I missed call from you earlier- anything happen?" he asked right before chomping into his ice cream. Jack wondered how that didn't make his teeth scream.

"Oh, naw, everything's cool now. Eric's mom made me leave again and I needed a place to stay. Tina's got it, though, so I'm all good," he explained, lounging back in the metal frame chair. Nick smiled.

"Sorry I could not help," he said, "If there is anything else I can do, you jus' let me know."

Jack rubbed his chin for a brief moment before saying, "Actually, I _do_ need some new black pants. Not skinny jeans, just some normal pants. I won't have time until probably Monday, so maybe you could get me some?"

"Of course!" Nick said, smiling wide, "I will buy the smallest waist size possible for your skinny body!" He then patted Jack's shoulders roughly, showing him just how bony he really was. His cheeks were red as he pushed his hand off and muttered about having to get back to work. He distinctly heard Nick laughing as he walked back to the counter.

It took a while for Nick to finish his treat. When he did, he came back up to the counter for a little more chatting. (Or gossiping, in Nick's case. Nosy old geezer loved being up in everyone's business.)

"I have some old friends coming to town soon," he said, "One is actually moving here with his daughter. Other is setting up business in town. Maybe I bring them in some time and we all have good chat?"

Jack smiled at him. "I don't even know who these people are, Nick, how is this a good idea?"

"My old friend Manny is one setting up business. Is in the movie biz. Specializes in children's movies and is always looking to hire writers," he explained, "I'm sure he'd love to have an extra set of hands."

Smirking, Jack said, "Yeah, well if only I had another body so I could take that job offer. Nick, you know I'm too busy here and at the club to work another job. I need the money, and unless he's willing to pay more than these two combined, I don't know if I'm interested."

Nick sighed. "Very well, party pooper," he said, smacking the back of his head, "I will see you later, then!"

Jack rubbed his head, grumbling unhappily, and returned to cleaning the sprinkles off the counter. A new job would be nice, but Jack was getting pretty good money here and at the club. He knew if he agreed to start stripping at the club that his paycheck would probably triple, but he wasn't sinking that low. He was already hounded enough as a humble waiter.

When he left the ice cream shop and went to the club, his point was proven. As he bent to clean one of his tables a patron came up and groped him from behind. He shrieked and smacked him as hard as he could with the food tray he had, drawing many unwanted eyes, including the manager's, and he got a stern talking to.

"Jack, this is the fifth time this month you've attacked a customer."

"It's not my fault! The guy was harassing me! He had his hand on my ass!" he argued, frowning angrily. This was in fact the fifth time. He had explained this so many times- it was out of self-defense! It wasn't him it was the drunk perverts who frequented the club!

"Well next time just ask him to remove his hands, and if he doesn't, come talk to me and I'll kick him out."

Jack rolled his eyes after the conversation. Of course, it was always the employee who was blamed for the idiocy of the customer. Next time somebody touched him like that he was going to spin around and kick him where he knew it would hurt. It was getting ridiculous. And for some reason it always seemed to be a middle aged man that was feeling him up. Always! Even on male stripper night when the club was packed with single ladies and old cougars.

He finished work and began cleaning everything. The tables were filthy tonight. It took him an extra hour just to get them looking presentable.

Tina's house was dark when he got back, but the door was unlocked, so he safely entered the house. He found a fresh pair of black pants on the guest bed, along with a note from Tina that read "Nick dropped these off today. Said you needed a new pair." Smiling, Jack tossed aside the blankets and collapsed into sleepy town.

_I really do recommend listening to "Roar" if you haven't heard it on commercials on TV. I like it. Fun bouncy song. No real words, either. Even better!_


	4. Strawberry

_Yes, every chapter will be named after an ice cream flavor. This is my pun fun for the week. Don't judge me._

**Just Eat The Ice Cream – Chapter Three: Strawberry**

Rubbing his forehead, Jack sipped in a mouthful of soda pop and popped two pills into his mouth. Having a headache this early was definitely not a good thing. He was lucky he brought something to stop it this time.

Bubbles had her headphones plugged into her ears, so any attempt Jack made to speak to her went unnoticed. He assumed this was her way of getting back at him for the other day. Shrugging, he decided to use it to his advantage- he began doing things he knew she hated.

She caught him in the middle of one act and screamed at him. "Hey, I asked you if it was okay and you didn't answer, so I assumed it was," he said, raising his hands defensively. She scowled at him and proceeded to throw several objects at him and threaten to report him. So, he scowled back and said, "Yes, but if you did that, then you'd be stuck actually having to do work for a change." He won this battle.

Their fight ended there anyhow, customers were coming in. Jack was happy to see Tina make a stop by, along with his other friend Sandy. And having them there gave him a chance to give out something besides vanilla. Tina's favorite was rainbow sherbet and Sandy's was strawberry. He enjoyed the fruity smells of both flavors and was happy to not have to worry about a sticky white mess on his hands. (Often times this was mocked at the club. He made sure to wash his hands before leaving the ice cream shop.)

He got to talk with his friends for a while, too. Sandy was sorry about what happened with Eric, but did offer his house anytime Jack needed it.

"I appreciate the offer Sandy, thanks," he said. And after a while his two friends left. So Jack had to clean up, as did Bubbles, and then he had to head to the club.

Jack cleared his area, brushed lint off his pants, and began readying himself. The crowds came, he was still thankful it wasn't Friday yet, and he quickly began work on his circles once again. He got a very rowdy table of girls, which actually really sucked. (One would assume having a table of hot, legal drunk girls fawning over you would be great. Well that one would be wrong.) The girls kept on picking at him about his flaws and about how they wished he'd strip for them. At one point one of the girls got a little too bold and grabbed at his nether regions. Needless to say Jack went right to the manager and he went to 'talk' with the ladies. When Jack looked back over there he found the man was snogging up a storm with the girl who had grabbed at him.

"Some help he was," he grumbled unhappily to himself. He made a point to avoid that table as much as possible after that. He didn't care if they gave him absolutely no tip. He was NOT going to get harassed and have his manager get laid because of it.

This made Jack miss the ice cream shop. And at the shop he missed the club. He hated the cycle of his life.

Going back to Tina's that night was a blessing. He got a nice warm bed to sleep in and no one to yell at him. Of course, he did have Tina to come and wake him up the next morning, so that was okay. Tina was actually a few years older than Jack was; all of his friends seemed to be older. Sandy was about ten years older, Eric was eleven years, Tina was eight and a half years, and Nick… Well, Nick was over twenty… But they all loved their eighteen year old buddy.

Jack sat at work and chewed on the food he bought for himself. A pizza bagel. It was fantastic. He started his day with bratty little kids coming in by themselves and asking for, of course, soft serve vanilla. One actually ordered a twist- hallelujah! But they all wanted the crappy normal things that called themselves cones. And after that a father came in with his sons, who had just won a little league game. He was rewarding them with ice cream. Jack gave them chocolate soft serves- today he seemed to be getting lucky.

In the middle of the day a man who looked to be in his thirties came in with a little girl who looked like she was no older than ten. They both had stark black hair, so Jack guessed the man was her father, or at least a relative of some sort.

He prepared himself for delving out another soft serve, but instead the little girl hopped over to the barrels of ice cream and began gawking at all the colors. Jack let her look while another customer came in and asked for a scoop of vanilla. (Hey, at least it wasn't soft serve!)

"Daddy, daddy, can I get this one?" the little voice of the girl asked. Jack smiled a little hearing her talk- she had a distinctly British accent.

Her father leaned over her shoulder and smiled, ruffling her hair. "Yes, sweety, but only one scoop. Remember, this is just for today because it's a special occasion," he said. Now Jack was smiling for sure- he had the same accent. The tall black haired man stood straight and looked at him. Jack slid over and asked what they'd like.

"I want redburry!" the little girl chimed from below. She rolled on her feet, hands behind her back, smiling brightly.

"Strawberry," the father clarified. Jack just smiled anyway.

Looking down at the bright eyed girl, Jack asked, "And do you want a waffle cone or a regular cone?"

She beamed at him. "I like waffles!" she announced proudly. Her father just laughed and said she'd like a waffle cone. Nodding, Jack got to work on that- happy to have a little kid want something other than vanilla for once.

He gave the little girl her frozen treat, to which she squeaked happily and said thank you, before she ran off and plopped her tiny butt down at a table near a window. Her father paid. To Jack's astonishment, he actually put all the change into the tip jar. This prompted the thought in Jack's head of, 'Is this guy crazy or something?!'

Jack moved to the next pair of customers- a mother and her daughter. The mom, in Jack's honest opinion, could afford to lose a little bit of weight. The daughter was stick skinny, which confused him. But she wanted soft serve vanilla, so he had to leave questions alone.

At one point Jack looked back at the father and daughter that had to be from Mars or something- they just couldn't be human- and saw that the dad was cleaning a big pink splotch off his daughter's face. He smiled at the sight. Even if they were aliens, they were cute. As long as they didn't try and take him aboard the mother ship, he was okay with them being here.

The father and his two sons left a wonderfully huge mess at their table, which Jack of course had to clean. (Because Bubbles' arms were apparently broken.) He left the counter, telling her to take care of anyone that came in, and went over to clean it up.

The table was near the alien family. Jack was currently scrubbing the crap out of a massive chocolate stain on the tabletop. (How had they managed to cake the ice cream in like that?) He overheard the little alien girl asking her father what made the ice cream pink when there were little red chunks in it. And then his peace was shattered- Bubbles shouted at him, scaring the living daylights out of him, and he fell forward, over the chair and halfway onto the floor.

Everyone had gasped. Several of the little kids in the store were laughing- he could hear them. The little bastards. He was positive he had hit his head; why else would it be throbbing on the side like that?

Groaning, he started to push himself back up when he actually felt someone else helping him up. "Are you alright?" he recognized the crisp voice of the father alien.

Rubbing his head, Jack nodded slowly. He heard the little girl ask her daddy if the ice cream man was okay. Jack pressed his hand to the side of his head again- wow it hurt. Blinking open his eyes, finding everything blurry at first, Jack blinked a few more times.

Pulling his hand away, he looked down at his palm and instantly noticed the big red stain on his skin. He groaned loudly and quickly grabbed some napkins, pressing them against his bleeding head. He made sure to send a heartless glare in Bubbles' direction.

Sighing, Jack looked at the black haired space man. "Do you have a cell phone?" he asked.

The man didn't even ask questions, he just handed Jack the phone and let him call. He dialed for Tina.

"Hey, T? It's Jack. Listen, I need you to get over to the shop as soon as you can. I need you to drive me to urgent care. No. No. Nothing too bad happened; I just fell and cut my head. T, calm down, I'm not dying. Ti-Tina, calm- Tina! Relax, I'm not hurt. Tina. Tina!" And she hung up on him because she was panicking.

Sighing in agitation, still holding his head, Jack clicked the end call button and grumbled, "Honestly…" Turning his attention back to the tall man, who towered over Jack by at least an entire foot, he handed back the phone. "Thanks. My friend's on her way."

"You're sure you're alright?" he asked, looking at the napkins, which were sticky with blood by now.

Jack waved his free hand. "Oh, yeah, yeah, it doesn't hurt all that bad, just bleeding a lot…"

He felt a tug at his apron. Looking down, Jack saw the stick skinny girl who had ordered vanilla. She stared up at him with big wide eyes and asked, "Mister, are you gonna diiiiiieeeeeee?"

Jack wanted to kick her for asking that. "No. I'm going to be fine. I just need a really big Band-Aid, that's all," he replied, keeping his composure rather well. Bubbles had already called their boss, telling him that Jack had gotten hurt and would be leaving early.

When Tina arrived, Jack hopped into her car and asked for her cell phone so he could call his manager at the club.

"Heya Tim, listen, I'm not gonna be able to come in tonight. I got banged up pretty bad. I'm heading to urgent care right now. Huh? Oh, no, I didn't break anything; I fell and cut open my head. I'll be fine, but the docs will probably tell me to lie down for the rest of the night. Yeah. Yup. Okay, see you tomorrow then."

Tina looked at him, worry spray painted all over her face. He sighed and said, "I'm fine T, just bleeding. It's not the end of the world."

"I just want to make sure you're okay," she said, "Are you going to tell your mom about this?"

"No," Jack replied, "If it didn't require getting treatment, I wouldn't tell anyone. I fall down and get bruised all the time. I don't like having people worry over me." He shot her a warning look- she quickly focused on the road and not on her injured friend.

True enough to what Jack had said, the doctors told him to lie down for the rest of the night. He got a butt-load of ointment slathered into his hair and then bandages were wrapped around his entire cranium.

Tina drove him home and let him lay across her couch for the rest of the evening. It was kind of nice to get to rest and do nothing. No bar freaks touching him. And it was Friday! Hahaha! Jack was cheering in his head with his victory. Getting hurt was the best thing to happen to him today!

So he had to bleed a little bit- it was worth it!

_And we have been introduced to a certain alien man with a daughter. *wiggles eyebrows*_


	5. Cookie Dough

_I feel like Jack's favorite flavor of ice cream would be mint or something like that…_

**Just Eat The Ice Cream – Chapter Four: Cookie Dough**

Jack was happy to have finally gotten a good nights' sleep. He woke up fully rested, if not a little bit sad he couldn't sleep more, and changed his clothes at a slow pace. He didn't need to rush to get to work; he took his time and went out to buy himself not only a coffee but a soda as well. (He grabbed a free box of donut holes from the shop. Who knew it was free donut day?) And he munched on them happily before his shift started.

Because it was Saturday, the little ice cream world he lived in was packed with ugly, chubby little faces. He got dozens of grandparents taking their grandkids out for a frozen treat, some of whom he recognized as customers from yesterday, and he got groups of kids coming in on their own. At one point he got a pack of teenagers coming in- good, considering not every single one of them ordered vanilla. He got to hand out a lot more fruity flavors today than normal. (It was HOT out!)

He had a hat on over the bandages, as well as the cap above that, so let's just say he got quite a few confused looks from people clad in spaghetti straps and booty shorts. It was uncomfortably warm, but he'd rather get questions as to why he was wearing it than why he looked like a mummy.

Bubbles sort of apologized for yesterday. And by sort of, he meant that she didn't actually say it, she just didn't yell at him once the whole shift. Honestly, Jack preferred that to getting a verbal 'I'm sorry'.

He got yet another visit from Nick today, which he was happy for. Nick said he wanted mint chip again, but this time with a scoop of cookie dough. "You just love the mint chocolate chip, don't you?" Jack asked, getting to work on his friend's order. When he finished, he called him sir again, got the same funny reaction, and went to sit with him for his break.

"So what is up with head? Why all the hats?" he asked, poking gently at the bobbing ice cream cone on top.

"Oh, I'm wearing the beanie to cover my bandages. Did Tina tell you? I fell last night- cut my head," he said, pointing to and lifting the beanie he wore. Nick blinked at it for a minute or two before asking if he was okay. "I'm fine, it just needs to stay bandaged until tonight's over…"

"How will boss at club take this?" Nick asked.

Shrugging, Jack said, "Well, I told him I got hurt, so he should be cool with the hat. How come you stopped by today? I saw you here like two days ago."

Now Nick smiled. "Ah, yes. I came to tell you friends have officially moved to town. Wanted to warn you I will be bringing them in tomorrow," he said, licking his ice cream, "I think you will like Manny, at least. Pitch is little strange, but daughter is precious."

Jack smiled. "I'm assuming this 'Pitch' is your other old business friend?" he used air quotes at the name of the other mystery man. Nick nodded and crunched his cone loudly.

The two sat and talked for a while, Nick asked questions about people Jack knew, and then Jack returned to work. The old man left with a wave and Jack focused back on tending to all the little ones. Why were Saturdays the prime day to take kids out for ice cream? No school? But it was Summer time…

When he got to the club, of course he was chastised by one of his co-workers for breaking dress code with the hat. Jack looked to his manager for help. "Jack's got a head injury. He's allowed to wear the hat for tonight." Jack grinned- for once the old pervert came through for 'im.

Still, that didn't mean he didn't get picked at for it. All night his fellow employees would try and pull it off, or just yank at it playfully. Jack got no questions from customers- they all just saw the black cap as a sort of fashion statement.

At one point Jack had a slow period. Standing next to one of his semi close pals, he asked, "So how was stripper night?"

"Ah, it was okay. Female strippers, so thankfully none of us got asked questions by creepy old ladies," he replied, "Plus we got some fantastic eye candy." Jack rolled his eyes at that and went off to tend to his waiting table.

It wasn't that Jack didn't like women, it was just that all of the women he had ever met were either frigid bitches or too motherly like Tina and he just wasn't attracted to mother figures. He had dated a couple guys for a while, one being an old friend from middle school named Jamie, and the other having been Eric for like three days. But even finding good men was difficult- half the ones he knew were perverted and the other half were his friends.

Glancing at his watch, Jack sighed with relief seeing it was nearing the end of his shift. He felt like he needed a nap something awful. He blamed his head injury. But when he got back to Tina's he couldn't sleep. He laid on the guest bed for an hour before he finally drifted off.

And the next morning he had to rush all over again. He was lucky Tina was willing to drive him. She took him to the coffee shop and then to work and that was that. Jack's head was free of bandages today, and when he looked at himself in the mirror he found that it actually didn't look half bad. You could only see the scab if you looked really closely.

So he stood at the counter and was treated like a normal human being today. It was fantastic. Only people who came in that day even realized this was the same idiot who fell and cut himself, and most of them didn't even bother asking how he was. It was nice.

Jack had just finished handing out his fifth soft serve in a row when the door opened on his old buddy Nick. Smiling at him, he said, "Been a while, stranger." Nick nodded his head, tipping an imaginary hat, and held the door for three other people. A taller, portly around the belly man with no hair on his head, and then the aliens from two days ago. So these were Nick's old business partners?

When the black haired space people came in, Jack saw the little girl's eyes light up with recognition. She rushed over to the counter, stood on her tippy toes and said, "Daddy, daddy, look! It's the ice cream man who fell!" Jack gave her a small smile and looked over at her father.

He walked up behind his daughter, ruffling her hair, and said, "Yes it is, sweety." He lifted his gaze to look at Jack. "How's the cut?" he asked.

Jack lifted his hair on the side to show the long, red scab. The girl squeaked out an 'ew' and the father smiled a little. "It's all healed up," he replied, letting his locks fall back into place. Nick walked over with his other friend and Jack quickly said, "You must be the infamous Manny Nick's talked so much about."

The man shook his hand with a friendly smile. His face was kind of chubby, but it made him look youthful and less intimidating. (His clean white suit almost canceled it out.) Nick joined the group and quickly allowed his friends to order whatever they wanted first, it was his treat.

Everyone quickly determined it was best to let the little girl go first. She bounced over to the barrels again and pointed at the cotton candy flavored ice cream. She thought it was blueberry, though. Her father cleared that up pretty quickly and she then picked black raspberry.

Jack looked at her father as he asked, "Waffle cone again?"

"No, chocolate!" the girl said from below. Jack looked down at her in confusion. She pointed at the display cone that was dipped in chocolate. "Chocolate!" she said again. Jack smiled and grabbed a cone to dip in freshly melted chocolate.

He heard her father talking to her from behind. "Sweety, you need to say please when you ask for something. It's rude to just demand what you want."

Jack then heard the girl chime out, "Pleease!" It was adorable. He turned back around and handed her the ice cream. Next up came Manny, who only wanted cookie dough. Jack was cool with that- cookie dough was better than vanilla.

Nick looked to the alien dad. "Pitch, aren't you wanting some?" Jack shook his head at the terrible grammar murder that just took place before him.

This 'Pitch' smiled and said, "No, just for Sera today. Maybe another time." Nick pouted unhappily at him for that, but the alien was already walking to the table his daughter had picked out.

Looking at his old friend, Jack smiled and asked, "What'll it be today, sir?" Nick grinned at him and pointed straight at the mint chip. Jack rolled his eyes with a laugh and quickly gave him his.

Just as he was assuming the group would be paying, Nick asked, "Now, what would you like?"

"Huh?"

Smiling, Nick said, "I am paying for you to have treat with us. You take break now and you come meet friends."

Jack blinked a few times in surprise. He couldn't remember the last time he actually ate the ice cream at the shop. It might be nice to try it again and talk with Nick. Looking over at the barrels, Jack said, "Well, pay first and I'll get mine and come join you." His older friend nodded and they settled out the prices. Once that was done, Nick went to the table with his, and Jack moved to the barrels.

Scooping out some Rocky Road, Jack told Bubbles he was taking a break. She snapped at him about the cone in his hands. "It's paid for, calm down," he grumbled, walking over.

The only seat open was between the little girl and Manny, but Jack figured it was a good chance to meet some new people. He sat himself down, and immediately the girl looked at him.

Smiling brightly, she pointed to her ice cream and said, "Mine's got chunkies in it! What's yours?"

Smiling back, Jack leaned forward a little and said, "Mine's got chunks of chocolate in it."

"Oooohh, can I try?" she asked, bouncing up onto her knees on the chair, reaching her hand out.

Her father reached toward her shoulder, saying in a soft warning tone, "Seraphina.."

But Jack smiled at him and let her have a nibble at his ice cream. Her eyes lit up. "It's yummy! Wanna trade?" Again her father said her name.

Laughing lightly, Jack said to the dad, "It's fine, she can have it." They traded their desserts and she beamed up at her father, telling him now she had chocolatey ice cream. She asked him to take a bite, which he did, if only a teeny tiny one.

"You certainly seem good with kids," Manny said behind him.

Jack turned to smile at him too. "Yeah, well, when working a job like this I guess you have to be," he said, rolling his wrist and taking a little lick of the ice cream. (Fruity.)

And just when he started to open his mouth to talk some more, the little girl, who Jack gathered was named Seraphina, tugged at his sleeve. Turning his head back around, Jack looked down at her expectantly. "Do you get to drive an ice cream truck around all the time?" she asked.

Jack couldn't even count how many times he'd been asked that very question. Still, he had to answer it again. "Actually, they don't let me drive the truck," he said.

"Why?" she asked with big, curious eyes.

"Because if I left, there would only be one person here at the store, and then they wouldn't be able to take a break and have someone take over for them," he explained, hoping she understood.

"Oh," she pouted, looking down, "Do they ever let you drive the truck?" Jack shook his head no. Obviously this was a big let-down for the little girl- probably wanted to ride around in it.

Smiling still, Jack turned toward Manny, but found that he was currently talking to Nick. Shrugging, he looked back to the aliens. He smiled warmly at the father and said, "Hey, name's Jack. Nick hasn't introduced us yet, so.." He offered his hand, and the tall man shook it gently.

"Pitch," he said, "We've met already, we just never exchanged names."

"I know, I just wanted to be polite," Jack said, smiling and letting his hand dangle over the back of the chair while he nomed on the ice cream. "So what do you do for work?" he asked, "Nick's told me what Manny does already."

Pitch relaxed a little, looking down as his daughter happily began chewing on the cone. "Well for a while I was an engineer. I've moved here for a better job opportunity as a therapist, though. As well as for better schooling for Sera, here." He rubbed the little girl's head fondly. It was pretty obvious that this guy loved his daughter more than anything- Jack was happy to see it.

"So you're a shrink," Jack said, just to clarify for himself, "That's cool. I've never been to one before, but I've always wanted to." He munched down on the frozen treat, or what was left of it, and muttered, "Never had the money…"

Smiling, Pitch said, "I'd always be willing to give you a free trial meeting. We can experiment and see if you actually need to see somebody or if you just really want to lie on the chairs and spew your feelings." Jack grinned at him- he wasn't sure if it was a joke, but it definitely was funny.

Seraphina chimed in at this point. "My daddy loves listening to stories! He knows all the best ones, too!"

Smiling down at her, Jack asked, "Does he?" Leaning forward, he whispered, "Well maybe I'll have to come over some time and hear all those amazing stories!" She giggled happily and told her father they were going to have a slumber party with the ice cream man.

Finally Nick finished talking Manny's ear off and Jack was able to talk with him as well. "Nick says you write children's stories," Jack says, smiling at his old friend. Nick winked at him and began making jokes with Pitch and Sera.

Manny nodded. "That's correct," he said, "For a while Pitch and I did business, but apparently it just wasn't his thing. Ironic considering all the stories he makes up for his daughter." Jack glanced at the black haired man, smirking at the obvious old friendship and inside jokes. He looked back at Manny as he continued. "I've done a few movies as well, but those are trickier. More likely to flop. With books you can let them sit around and gain publicity."

Jack nodded. "Do you have child workers? Like little kids who help come up with the stories?" he asked, "Kids come up with the best stuff. They're not afraid to play pretend."

The bald man smiled. "No, but we have had little Sera here give us some big pointers from time to time," he seemed so friendly. Jack felt absolutely comfortable with him- like he had known him his whole life. He definitely had the air of 'father figure' to him.

Curiosity got the better of Jack. He asked at one point, "So, do _you_ have any kids?"

"Oh, no," Manny said, smiling, "Always loved children, just never had any of my own. It's why I envy Pitch so much!" Jack didn't find it too odd that this old guy had no kids, Nick didn't either. Maybe they just shared that similarity, an affinity for loving kids but never having one of their own.

Jack caught Bubbles staring him down at this point and quickly hopped to his feet. "Well, I gotta get back to work, but this was fun," he said, scurrying back toward the counter.

He heard the sweet voice of Seraphina call to him from behind. She shouted, "Goo-bye mister ice cream man!" He wanted to go back and hug her- she hadn't even heard him when he said his name was Jack.

Going back to working, Jack was able to give Nick a quick hug goodbye and had to rush back to helping customers. He hated Bubbles for stuff like this. He always let her sit and talk to her friends until she was finished, but apparently he didn't get that privilege. Groaning to himself, Jack watched as his new sort of friends left. Sera waved at him happily, he gave her a little wave back, and Pitch smiled at him as his goodbye. Manny nodded his head in his direction, smiling warmly, and they all went their separate ways. Jack wished he could go with them- escape the drone of the circles.

When Bubbles yelled at him for dozing off, Jack cursed under his breath and went back to work.


	6. Pistachio

_I got no quotes for you guys…_

**Just Eat The Ice Cream – Chapter Five: Pistachio**

Jack had been dancing idly around to his tables at the club. He liked the bounce to whatever song it was they were playing tonight. He was happy to have a table that wanted some food- they ordered a group serving of chicken wings. Bobbing back to the corner where one of his waiter friends was standing, Jack asked, "Night's been good?"

He rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I guess. My stupid table keeps going back on what they wanna order, though. It's killing me."

Still bouncing on his feet excitedly, Jack said, "Ah, lighten up! I'm sure they'll figure it out if you give them enough time!" He saw one of his tables setting their menus down. His cue to head on back and begin the cycles again.

Why was Jack so incredibly happy? He had tomorrow off at the shop! An entire morning to himself! It was reason enough to celebrate. He danced around with joy.

As he worked his thoughts went back to his morning. Meeting those people. Manny sure seemed interesting- reminded him of Nick. Pitch seemed nice enough, though it was kinda hard to tell when his daughter was popping in every two seconds. But she was a sweetheart- one of the cutest kids Jack had ever met.

Apparently his daydreaming got in the way. He tripped over himself and spilled an entire table's order. Shit… He saw his manager glaring at him from the side, but he ignored that, went and got more drinks, and went to clean up his mess. He couldn't wait until tomorrow- the freedom was so close he could just taste it!

When he got back to Tina's, he flopped down with a big grin on his face and quickly slept until noon. She smiled at him when he finally came out of the room.

"Sleep well?" she asked. Jack nodded and yawned.

"Gosh, I needed that," he said, sitting himself down on her couch. She smiled at him once more before texting someone rapidly. "Who you textin'?" he asked.

"Just a guy I met online last night. He seems nice. I'm inviting him out tonight. Thinking about heading to the club," her words made Jack choke on nothing.

"The club?! Oh, T, nooo! It's gonna be so embarrassing for him to see me working!" he whined unhappily.

She waved him off. "Oh stop complaining," she said, "He's nice. It'll be fine." Jack groaned unhappily and flopped around like a fish on land.

After his little show, Jack decided to head out and buy another pair of pants. He needed one anyway. Finally getting a chance to yank on his favorite brown skinny jeans, Jack stretched like a cat. "Oh, man I missed feeling the fabric stretch with me." He pulled on a sleeveless shirt and then his blue zip-up hoodie, halfway zipped, and walked out with his wallet in his pocket.

He danced down the sidewalks. He had that song stuck in his head again. It was nice to be able to move to his own rhythm, no rules to follow and no co-workers to deal with. He made his way to the mall and figured he may as well enter in through the store he bought most of his black pants at.

It had a lot more home supplies than clothes, but it was the best place for dressy stuff. He hopped aboard the escalator and walked to the men's section. (Actually, the whole upper deck was men's; just not all of it was classy.) He strode past the ties, but was called back by somebody who apparently recognized him.

Looking down into the tiny space between the tables of ties, Jack grinned seeing his friend Sandy. He jumped to him and gave him a big bear hug. Sandy was probably his only friend that was shorter than he was- even Tina matched him for height!

His bright haired friend was clad in a uniform with a name-tag. "Hey man, I didn't know you worked here!"

"Just got the job!" his deaf friend signed to him. Jack was lucky he could read lips like a pro; he was hopeless when it came to learning any type of language. (He had flunked all three languages his high school offered.) "I had the interview a month ago and they finally accepted me!"

Smiling, Jack said, "I'm really happy for ya, Sands!" The two stood and chatted for a while, Sandy said that Tina told him about his injury and wanted to know if he was okay. Jack showed him the scab, just like he did the other day and Sandy flinched back with a disgusted look on his face. Jack laughed- Sandy was so squeamish.

"And they're cool with you being deaf?" Jack asked, "I mean, you would think working here they'd want people who could.. you know.. _talk_ back to the customers."

Sandy smiled and quickly signed back. "I don't get to use the registers, just assist register workers and do other stuff." Jack nodded and said he'd best be off. Had to buy those pants.

He found a nice pair, but the price was outrageous. He bent forward to see if there were any hidden underneath some others. As he searched he heard a noise behind him and then felt someone's arms wrapping around his legs.

Looking down, Jack was kind of surprised to find Seraphina hugging his legs like that. "Ice cream man!" she shouted excitedly.

He gave her a smile and ruffled her hair. "Hey Sera." Standing up straight, he looked around and quickly noticed that there was no sign of Pitch. Looking back down at the girl, he asked, "Where's your dad?"

She looked behind her and immediately frowned. "He was there a second ago…" she mumbled, letting go of him and looking around. She looked at the tables of pants and asked, "Is this the place with all the tiny beds?"

"No, this is the men's section upstairs," Jack replied. Her face fell and her eyes began to look wet. Quickly realizing that she had unknowingly wandered away from her dad, Jack knelt down and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, hey, it's gonna be okay. We're gonna go find your daddy."

Her quivering lip told him she was still upset at having lost him. So, he took hold of her hand and walked her to the escalators. They went down together and went toward the homes department. Jack looked into every aisle, trying to see just where her father was.

He heard him before he found him. What he heard was the sound of Pitch saying his daughter's name with such overwhelming relief that he could practically feel it wash over him. She spun around and let go of his hand, rushing into her father's arms.

Pulling her up against him, Pitch sighed loudly and repeatedly stroked the top of her head. "Oh, goodness, I was so worried!" Jack smiled at the show of affection. Pitch set his daughter back down, and with a stern face told her, "Don't you run away from me like that. This is a big place, you could get lost. Or someone could take you."

"But daddy, I found the ice cream man!" she whined, pointing to Jack, "He helped me come find you..!" Pitch looked up at him, and Jack just offered a sympathetic smile. He had a pretty good idea the terror of raising children. He had babysat for his friend Jamie once, he had a little sister named Sophie, and he had nearly lost her in the park.

"Thank you," Pitch said, still sounding incredibly relieved, "She was lucky it was you she found."

Shrugging his shoulders, Jack just said, "Ah, well, it's easy to get wrapped up in all the stuff on display if you've never been here before."

Pitch gave him a curious smile. "Who said we've never been here before?" he asked.

"Oh, uh," Jack blushed lightly- right, forgot to mention that Nick told him they had just moved in. "Nick told me you guys just moved here… I mean, you mentioned moving here yesterday, but he's the one who told me it was literally the other day."

Seraphina bounced up and down, tugging on her father's hand and pointing off at something else, saying, "Daddy, daddy, look! They have butterfly blankies!"

Her tugging became so violent that Jack could see Pitch's arm being ripped from its socket. Chuckling lightly, the tall man said, "Okay, well, I should be going. She's going to rip my arm off if we don't go look." As they began walking away, he waved back at Jack with his free hand and said, "Have a good one!"

"You too!" Jack replied, smiling as Seraphina pulled her father so hard he was yanked into leaning forward.

After he finally found a pair of pants, Jack returned to Tina's house, finding that she was getting ready to meet her date. They'd be going somewhere first and then would meet him at the club. Jack made a point to whine unhappily about that.

Work at the club was okay after that, but when Tina showed up with her beau, Jack felt like his night was ruined. He ended up being their waiter, and every time he came to see how they were or give them something they ordered, the man would scowl at him. After a while he just got up and took Tina out to the dance floor.

Jack watched cautiously. It was obvious she really liked this guy, and he really liked her, but he was getting some serious 'Keep away from my girl' vibes from him. Besides that, he got a strong sense of 'I don't like you' from him. Maybe it was just because Tina obviously was close with him and he wasn't exactly atrocious. He brushed it off as being nervous about their first date.

The rest of the beginning of the week went pretty much as per normal. Jack worked the shop, then the club, then went back to Tina's for the night. Thursday was probably when it got uncomfortable. Tina's new Romeo was over at her house when he got back. He never saw the guy, so how did he know? Well… Let's just say… he _heard_ them.

He didn't sleep well that night. And the next morning his eyes would not stop twitching. He had really hoped to never have to visualize his friend like that. She was like a big sister- he didn't want to picture his sister getting rammed into a wall.

The guy was still there that morning, too. Jack wanted to die. The way he looked at him- at first he had been shocked to find him there, and when Tina explained that she was letting him crash with her for a while he looked enraged. Jack took that moment to scurry off to work.

His nerves were still shaken when he made it to the shop. He was handing someone their ice cream when he noticed how terribly his hands were trembling. Swallowing, he told Bubbles he needed a pee break and let her take over.

He didn't actually go; he just stood in the room and splashed cold water into his face a few times. Tina's guy looked really nice, but he seemed so angry! How could anyone with blue eyes so big be so terrifying to be in a room with?

Once he had calmed down enough to think straight, he went back out and returned to work. Soft serve vanillas for all…

After a while he got too bored to be scared anymore. He relaxed into the dull and the rest of the day went by relatively normally. Bubbles fell on her butt at one point, which was funny, but other than that, nothing to report.

Jack almost never got the same customers twice in one week. People didn't always go out for ice cream; he understood that, so it had been nice to see Nick so often last week. He wished he could see all his friends more often. If he had free time he'd be visiting Sandy at the mall or hanging with Eric at his internship. But, sadly, Jackson Frost had no free time. Only work time and sleep time.

It was another Friday, and it was male stripper night, at the club. Jack was trying his absolute best to look un-appealing to everybody. His shift started and he went to his first table- which contained a group of women, one of them pregnant. They all cheered happily, thanked him, called him a cute little thing, and he went to the bar to get their drinks. Jack got distracted at one point by one of the strippers. He couldn't help but stare- the man's pants were missing the ass!

When he got a chance to wait out for another table, he watched the show for himself. He laughed at the cheesy names the strip-dancers had, but could not deny the way watching them made him hot. Sometimes he wished he had a boyfriend. But then those sometimes he remembered that he had no time for even himself, let alone another human being. So, he returned his mind to now times and just watched the incredibly built, incredibly handsome men dancing with a small smile.


	7. Butterscotch

**Just Eat The Ice Cream – Chapter Six: Butterscotch**

Jack wanted to die.

Tina's new fling was at her house again. It was three in the morning and he could hear the two of them doing the hanky panky upstairs **again**. How was he supposed to sleep through that? Did they realize the floor wasn't sound proof?

Groaning, he searched through the shelves in Tina's bathroom for earplugs. He only managed to find a box that had one in it. He took it and slept on his side. Not the best sleep of his life, but better than the night before.

When he woke up he found Tina making breakfast. Yawning, he asked, "Where's Mr. Big?"

His female friend pouted at him for that. "He's taking a shower; he'll be out any minute now."

Jack stole a few of the blueberries she was using to make pancakes and then grabbed a banana. "You want this?" he asked. She said no. "You sure? You really seemed to like _his_ banana last night."

Tina's face went stark red. "You could hear that!?" she asked, covering her mouth in embarrassment.

Frowning, Jack peeled the banana and said, "T, you guys weren't exactly quiet. Of course I could hear you."

Cheeks still ablaze, Tina whispered, "Oh my gosh, Jack, I am so sorry! I didn't know!"

"Look, it's cool," Jack grumbled, chewing the yellow fruit, "I'm just gonna buy some earplugs so I can sleep through it. I don't want you to have to lose your sex life." Again, Tina blushed.

As he walked to work, Jack wasn't entirely sure how he planned to sleep through that. Even _with_ earplugs they were loud. He needed to get good sleep if he wanted to function normally at work. Maybe he had overstayed his welcome at Tina's…

The ice cream shop was murder that day. Saturday again… He wished he had a friend to talk to, or an acquaintance, or somebody other than Bubbles! Fuck- if Jack had to hear her complain about her belly button ring one more time he was gonna lose it!

He took his break right then. "I'm gonna head to the dollar store, so I might be a little longer than ten minutes," he said. She scowled at him for bailing on her, but hey, this was his only chance to get those earplugs.

When he stepped in the store he came face to face with Eric's mother, who glared at him like he was some sort of escaped murderer. He tried to brush off the frostbitten shoulder she gave him and went to get a few things of earplugs.

There were so many types. What the hell was memory foam? Why was it in earplugs?

He just went with some traditional, normal, yellow earplugs. As he went to the register, he grabbed a couple candy bars and stuck them in his pocket. He'd snack on those later.

Getting back to Bubbles, Jack was told that he had been gone almost twenty minutes. Rolling his eyes, he just took his post and catered to all the whiny children who wanted ice cream.

The next day he went through the same thing, and the next day and the next and so on. Nothing ever changed at the ice cream shop. It was always just kids begging their parents' ears off for ice cream and only getting stupid soft serve vanilla. The club was no different. Always just a bunch of drunken idiots going and getting themselves even more wasted while they danced to terrible loud music.

It was finally another Friday, not that Jack was looking forward to it. Jack was honestly just happy to be out of Tina's house. Her 'friend' seemed to be over constantly. And he seemed to constantly want her in bed! Every time he laid eyes on Jack he'd get that angry look in his eyes. It was really frightening. Jack worried for his safety. At one point he caught him searching his bag and when he asked what he was looking for, the man replied 'condoms'. When Jack asked why he had said, "Cuz I wanna know if you've been fucking my girl without me knowing." Let's just say that Jack moved all of his stuff that night.

He couldn't take much more of the stress of being in that house. He was afraid of that guy. He wondered if he was stalking him- he had seen him outside the shop one day, just sitting there, watching him with that angry look for hours. He had nearly called the cops.

Looking at his shaking hands, Jack mumbled to himself, "Maybe now would be a good time to take that free appointment for therapy…" Problem was, he had no way of reaching Pitch. Even if he had known his business number, he didn't have a cell phone to call it with. He'd probably have to scour the internet to find his building. Or pester Nick.

He ended up doing the latter. He used the payphone outside and called up his buddy. "Heya Nick, listen, any idea where Pitch's office is for the therapy? He said I could have one free meeting and I think I need it." As his friend answered, he scribbled down the answer in pen on his hand.

He figured he could call in a day off for tomorrow. It was only Sunday, why the heck not? When he called, his boss approved his request, and Jack was squared away to meet up at Pitch's office- hopefully he'd have some time to see him.

When he got home that night after a ridiculous night at the club, Jack heard the tell-tale sounds of Tina's beau being upstairs. Sighing, he pulled out his new earplugs and went to the guest room to sleep.

He woke up to a terrifying sight- Tina's man standing naked in his doorway. He screamed when he saw him and fell out of the bed. Ripping the yellow nubs out of his ears, Jack shouted, "Dude, what the FUCK!? Are you trying to give me a fucking heart attack!?"

The blue eyed man scowled at him. "Don't you have anywhere else to be, kid? You've been crashin' at my girl's for over a week now," he hissed.

Jack swallowed and lifted himself up to stand. "Uh… I… I'll be out by tomorrow…"

"Good." And with that, the naked man walked to the kitchen. Jack definitely needed this therapy session today.

He found the building without a problem, walking down to the lower level that housed the offices of the multiple shrinks working there. Jack read a little stand up sign on the desk in front. 'If the door to your psychologist is closed, please wait to be treated.' Jack looked at each door- all of them were closed.

So, he sat and waited and read animal magazines. When the first door opened a little Asian girl walked out, thanking the older gentleman inside. Obviously not Pitch's office. He waited for a while longer, reading until nothing sounded interesting anymore. He nearly fell asleep by the time the second door opened.

He raised his head in time to see a tall, skinny red-haired woman leave the room. Sitting there for a while longer still and seeing no one else come out; Jack got up and wandered over to peer inside.

The woman sitting at the desk blinked up at him, and Jack quickly apologized for barging in. He went back to sit and wait.

It took another hour before Jack saw the door furthest to the left open. An older, shorter man came out with a matching woman beside him. Jack smiled when he saw the black haired face that towered over them. He finally found Pitch's office.

When the skinny space man saw him, he quickly smiled. "Jack," he said, walking over to him as he stood from his chair, "Good to see you. Anything I can help you with?"

Jack fiddled his hands together, pinching his left thumb sheepishly. "Um, actually I was hoping we could have that free trial session…" he said shyly. He had never gone to a therapist before; it felt eerily similar to a visit to the doctor. But Pitch smiled warmly and stepped aside so that he could walk into the room.

The room was nicely sized, had a single tiny window way up near the top that just barely lifted above the ground, and had some cute furniture. A pale green couch next to a table with a lamp, covered in blue and green cushions, a big dark brown desk with papers all over it, and a tall black rolling chair. But what really grabbed Jack was the chair off to the side, near the wall and closet. It was the exact style of chair he had always seen on television in therapy scenes!

Squeaking with delight, he rushed to the chair and bounced onto the stippled leather cushioning. Pushing down on it experimentally, Jack couldn't hold back the delighted giggle that rolled up from his throat.

Looking back over to Pitch as he closed the door behind him, Jack said, "You have one of those shrink chairs!"

Pitch smiled and looked at the chair. "Yes," he said, "Seraphina was very happy to see that too." Jack grinned and turned his head back to the chair, just to smile excitedly down at it. He never thought an inanimate object could make him so happy.

He heard a soft sound behind him and then Pitch's crisp British tone saying, "Now. Why did you choose today to come and see me?"

Jack spun around and plopped himself down to lay in the chair. He smiled as he rested his shoulders back on the part that curved up. "Well, I was hoping that maybe I could just get some stuff off my chest. Maybe de-stress a bit," he said. Pitch nodded. Jack sat up a little bit, putting a hand out, and asked, "You're not gonna write any of this down, are you? Or tell anyone?"

Smiling, Pitch said, "Everything my patients tell me is confidential. I'm not legally at freedom to tell anyone anything they don't want me to tell. And if you don't want me to write any of this down, I won't." Jack smiled and laid his head back down. "So, why don't you just start with whatever's upsetting you and we'll go from there?"

Jack exhaled slowly. "Okay… Well… It started about a week ago… My friend Tina's got herself a new boyfriend- she met him online," he said. Pitch just nodded and listened in silence, "I'm really happy for her and all- he really seems to like her… It's just… He really seems to have it in for me…"

"Has it in for you?" Pitch repeated, resting his chin in his hands, looping his fingers together, "What makes you say that?"

"Well, he kind of threatened me… As recently as this morning, actually… And… I saw him… Outside the ice cream shop the other day… He wasn't doing anything, he was just sitting there… watching me…" Jack whispered now, feeling uncomfortable just saying it.

"Did it occur to you to tell someone? Or call for help?" Pitch asked.

Jack raised an arm, keeping his palm flat, "I did. When I saw him outside of work I almost went to the phone we have inside for emergencies and called the cops… But… He left after a while, so I kinda let it go… He's seemed to dislike since he first met me at the clu- uh, at work…"

"He's been to the ice cream shop?" Pitch asked, sounding a little concerned.

"Well…. No…" Jack answered. "I… Have a second job… At the town club… And.. well… Tina took him to that while I was working… And the whole night he gave me dirty looks. Every time I came to their table he'd glare at me… And then.. .After that, he's been at Tina's house a lot recently… Pretty much every night…"

"How do you know?" Pitch asked.

Again, Jack swallowed. "Well, I've kinda been staying at Tina's for a while… I had been staying with my friend Eric before, but his mom kicked me out…" He glanced over at Pitch- he looked worried. "I, uh… Don't really have enough money to afford an apartment of my own right yet… I'm getting closer, pretty soon… Just… Not yet…"

Pitch nodded without a word. It was actually more reassuring than words probably would have been. It actually comforted Jack. Smiling a little now, he continued, "So… He's been over… And.. the first night, I… well… I could hear them… upstairs…" Pitch nodded again, understanding quickly what Jack was getting at. "And, well… The next morning the guy wasn't too happy to find me there… I left as fast as I could that morning…"

Jack rolled his shoulders as he said, "So… Basically every night he's been at her place. Doing… well, you know… And this morning he basically told me to get out… I kinda told him I'd be out by tomorrow, but the problem is… I don't have anywhere else to go, unless I can get a hold of my friends. Eric's out of the question, his mom's sick of me, and I'm not sure if I'll be able to get a hold of Sandy in time… And well, I don't wanna bother Nick any more than I already have… But so far he's looking like my best choice…"

Pitch interrupted him at this point. Jack turned to look at him as he said, "Well, if it's not too bold to offer, I'm sure Sera would be happy to have that slumber party."

Jack blinked as he slowly registered that Pitch was offering to let him stay with him for the night. "Really?" he asked, sitting upright and smiling a little more than was proper.

Smiling warmly, Pitch said, "As long as it isn't for too long, sure. We have enough space, just not an extra room…" Jack flung his legs over the edge of his chair and grinned at the black haired man. "Sera would definitely enjoy making a fort of pillows and boxes."

Jumping up from his chair, Jack thanked him profusely. Pitch just laughed lightly and smiled as Jack shook his hand like a madman.

"Would you like to bring your things over tonight?" he asked, standing up from his chair, "I hope you won't mind all the boxes everywhere. We're still unpacking."

"No, I wouldn't mind at all!" Jack said, smiling happily, "Thanks so much! I really appreciate this!"

Pitch just smiled again. "I'm willing to give you a place to stay until you can make other arrangements," he said. They walked out together, Jack followed Pitch to his car in the lot. "Sera's at home with a babysitter right now, but she'll definitely be happy to see her favorite ice cream man."

Jack just grinned at the idea of seeing the happy little girl. Pitch asked where Tina's house was, and Jack helped him get directions. He hurried inside, gathered up all of his things and then came back out to set his stuff in the back seat. He hopped back into the passenger side seat and smiled brightly at Pitch.

As they drove, Jack said, "I'm not sure how I'll ever be able to repay you for this…"

"It's fine," he replied, "I'm sure you would do the same for a friend." Jack blinked at that. They were friends? He couldn't hold back the smile at hearing that. He had a new friend, yet again another older than him, but a friend nonetheless.

When the car stopped, Jack was a little bit surprised to find such a humble, cute looking house. For some reason he pictured Pitch living in a mansion of sorts. But the grey two story was nice. Very homey.

Jack followed Pitch up the front steps to the door. The tall man held it open for him, and Jack entered hesitantly. As soon as he was inside the doorway, Jack heard the undeniable squeak of Seraphina shouting, "Ice cream man!"

And then his legs were tackled by a tiny child who was too excited to see him. He was glad Pitch was behind him- he had something to fall back on as the child nearly toppled him. He slammed back into his chest with an 'oompf!'

Lifting his eyes up to look at Pitch, he whispered a quiet, "Sorry…" Pitch only smiled and began prying his daughter off of him.

"Sera, sweety, it's not polite to run up to someone like that," he scolded gently.

She let go and said an adorable, "Sorry!" Jack couldn't be mad at her when she was as cute as she was.

Kneeling down to her level, Pitch said, "Sera, Jack is going to be sleeping over for the next two nights, okay? I want you to be nice to him, don't make fun of him, don't ask questions you don't think he wants to answer, and don't pester him if he's doing something."

Nodding with a smile, Seraphina shouted joyfully, "Slumber party!" And she grabbed Jack's hand, yanking him to the couch in the opening room. He set his backpack down and began helping her build the most magnificent pillow and box fort anyone had ever seen.

As they piled boxes and couch cushions on top of each other, Pitch just stood to the side and watched with a smile. If Jack had to guess, he was happy to have a break making his little girl happy.

Seraphina ran upstairs and returned with a very familiar butterfly blanket. They stretched it over the pillars of pillows, placed weights to hold it in place, and began to play a game of castle. Sera wanted to be the magical fairy. She told Jack that he was the Princess that needed to be rescued.

"Well if you're the fairy and I'm the princess who needs to be saved, who's saving me?" he asked, poking her stomach with a smile.

She pointed to her father and shouted, "Daddy! Daddy's always the brave knight who comes to save the day!"

Pitch came into the game with them and he began his role fighting evil dragon hand puppets and sweeping Princess Ice Cream Man off her feet. When he couldn't defeat the dragon, the magical fairy had to grant him special powers and a magical sword. And only with her help did he manage to vanquish the monster and save the beautiful princess.

When Seraphina said he was supposed to kiss the princess to save her both men just laughed and Pitch kissed her forehead instead. She whined unhappily at that. "Daaddyy! I'm the fairy this time! Not the princess! You're supposed to kiss the ice cream man!"

Ruffling her hair, he said, "But you're daddy's little princess. I always have to kiss you!" She pouted unhappily until he gave in and took Jack's hand and placed a quick peck upon it. Jack laughed at the way she whined about how that was cheating.

After their game of castle was over, Jack had an hour before he'd have to head to the club. "I won't be back here until around three in the morning," he told Pitch as they sat, "Will you be okay with leaving the door unlocked?"

Pitch waved his hand. "No, no," he got up and came back, dropping a little silver key into his hand, "This is the spare key. You seem responsible enough to let yourself in. You don't mind sleeping on the couch do you?"

"As long it's not a pillow fort when I come back." Pitch laughed at his joke. Seraphina climbed into her daddy's lap at this point and sat with the two of them, smiling joyfully.

When it was time to leave, she wasn't happy at all. He told her he'd be back later and they could have breakfast together, which cheered her up a little, but she still whined about not getting the sleepover she was promised. When Jack left he heard Pitch telling her that you don't always get what you want.


	8. Cotton Candy

**Just Eat The Ice Cream – Chapter Seven: Cotton Candy**

The club was packed with people, as was normal, and Jack wished he had remembered to bring his pain medication. Everyone was so terribly loud. The spare key to Pitch's house was tucked away neatly in his pocket- for some reason Jack kept checking every chance he got to see if it was still there.

It became really awkward when he saw Nick's friend Manny at the club. It looked like he was with some other business partners or something- they were all wearing suits. Apparently helping the ugly men to get laid was a good way to seal a business deal. (Not a bad idea, actually…) Jack was just holding back vomit every time he saw one of the older men grinding with a wasted girl.

Manny recognized him, the smile was too friendly for him not to, and made the comment that Nick never told him he worked here too. Jack laughed awkwardly and just said, "Yeah…" He was lucky he was servicing their table. He probably wouldn't have been able to handle it.

While he was heading to the bar to get an order, one of Manny's 'friends' stopped him. Well, to be honest, he grabbed Jack and pulled him over to rub his ass in the midst of the crowd of people. Once again- middle aged man feeling him up.

Scowling at him, Jack hissed, "Sir, if you don't remove your hands, I'm going to have to have the manager remove you."

The man grinned at him. Seeing as how the invasive touches were only getting more insistent, Jack pushed away and went to tell his manager. He pointed out the salt and pepper haired man in the suit to him and he was quickly asked to leave. Jack was happy to see that he actually did.

When his manager came back to him, Jack said, "Oh, uh, hey, Tim..!" He moved to hear him better and Jack asked, "Uh, you think maybe I could get off early tomorrow? I promised a little girl that I'd have a sleepover with her, and tonight I kinda had to back out."

"Alright, but you're working extra the next time." That was good enough for Jack.

His shift was dull after that. No more man hands roaming his body like he was some sort of puzzle to put together. He was okay with dull, though, if it meant he wasn't getting groped.

Going back to Pitch's was weird. As he walked the sidewalks, he kept thinking maybe he was invading too much by spending two nights with this man that he hardly knew. Sure, his daughter loved him, but Jack still felt out of place going back there.

He unlocked the door and stepped inside. He was surprised to find Pitch and Seraphina sitting on the couch waiting for him. Well, Seraphina was actually sound asleep on Pitch's lap, but Pitch was awake and stroking her hair tenderly.

Looking at the sleeping girl and then at her father, Jack didn't get to ask, Pitch whispered, "She insisted we wait up for you. She wanted to see you when you came back…" He looked down at her peaceful face and said, "Couldn't make it past eleven…"

Smiling, Jack walked over and sat down on the couch next to Pitch. He looked down at her sleeping face with a happy smile. "She's precious," he whispered.

Pitch nodded. "I still don't know why I was lucky enough to get a daughter like her…"

"You and your wife must be very happy," he said. He never actually met Pitch's-

"I'm not married." Jack blinked and looked at Pitch.

Cheeks going pink, Jack muttered a quiet, "Oh… Sorry… I didn't know…"

The black haired man just smiled. "It's fine. No harm done," he said quietly, "Seraphina understands… She's happy this way, I think…"

"Sure seems it," Jack whispered, watching her face twitch into a smile as she dreamed. Looking back up at Pitch, he asked, "Aren't you tired?" Pitch only shrugged his shoulders. Stretching his limbs and yawning, Jack said, "Well, I certainly am…"

Pitch chuckled warmly at that. "I'll take Seraphina up to be so you can sleep," he got up, cradling his baby girl in his arms, and walked to the stairs. Jack spread himself across the sofa, smiling when he felt the warmth Pitch had left behind, and yawned again. "I'll be back to give you a blanket."

Jack nodded and let his eyes fall shut. He barely registered Pitch spreading the fabric over him and tucking it on the side. It actually kind of scared him. He jolted a little, gasping, and blinked several times before he realized that it was just Pitch. The tall man smiled and began walking away. "Good night, Jack," he said just before flicking off the lights.

Yawning again, Jack replied, "Night…" And then he was out like a light. He slept so incredibly soundly that night. He literally had to be dragged out of his dreams the next morning. Seraphina had to bounce on the couch for a full ten minutes to rouse him.

Blinking his tired eyes open, Jack smiled sleepily at her. "Morning Sera," he said.

"Good morning ice cream man!" she said, laying across him and playing with his hair.

"He has a name, Sera," Jack heard Pitch say from another room.

"I know he does!" she replied, "I just like calling him ice cream man!" Laughing, Jack slowly pushed himself up into a sitting position. Sera let herself slide down into his lap as he sat up- it was actually pretty funny, her facial expression didn't falter at all.

Once she had finally gotten off of his legs, Jack managed to hang them over the side of the couch and stretch. She giggled at him and imitated his movements. Jack got up and stretched some more. When Seraphina became mimicking this as well, Jack jumped at her and began tickling her sides.

Her squeals of laughter brought Pitch out to see what had her so happy. Jack saw him watching from the doorframe. He smiled over at the tall man and then returned to attacking little Sera. Soon he had her pinned to the couch, crying she was laughing so hard. Sitting back, he smiled down at her.

She laughed up at him and kicked her little legs at his knees. Jack caught her feet and pretended to eat them. She squealed again and began wriggling like a worm until she managed to roll off the couch and run behind her father for safety. "Daddy! Don't let the scary monster get me!" she said.

Pitch grinned and turned around and grabbed at her, tickling her as well. She squealed and ran to the other end of the room. "It's too late, Sera! I'm a tickle monster too!" he growled playfully.

"Nooooo!" she giggled. Soon the two men closed in on her and ended up tickling her into defeat. Pitch lifted her in his arms and gave her a raspberry on her tummy. She laughed happily when he did, crying out, "Daddy!"

Jack looked at the clock after that and groaned. He had to be to work in less than an hour. When Pitch asked what was wrong, and he told him, he asked, "Well would you like breakfast before you go? You did promise Seraphina." Jack looked at the little girl and she glared so ferociously adorably at him that there was absolutely no way Jack could say no.

They sat at the table and ate the eggs Pitch had made. Jack shaped his into a happy face, using the bacon as well, and Sera quickly tried to copy it. As he ate, Jack thanked Pitch. "This is really good," he said, "Thank you."

Pitch only smiled and ate with them. When Jack had to leave, Seraphina squeaked with excitement seeing his apron and hat. She wanted to put it on. "I think the apron's too big for you, but here, you can try on the hat," he said, placing it on her head. It fit perfectly. And she looked precious.

Jack honestly didn't want to head to work that morning. He wanted to spend the whole day playing with Seraphina and Pitch. But, he was in high spirits at work because of all the fun he'd had. So it worked out in the end.

Bubbles was doing absolutely nothing today. She literally just sat at one of the tables and texted the entire first half of the shift.

Jack got a pleasant, but not entirely unexpected, surprise today. Pitch came in with Seraphina. She ran right behind the counter and hugged his legs. When Pitch got to him, he told Jack, "She wouldn't stop asking to come visit you at work."

"And I wanted ice cream!" she added in, still clinging to his legs. Jack just laughed and ruffled her hair.

"What would you like little lady?" he asked.

He lifted her up so she could look at the barrels from behind. Pitch stood and watched with a smile. Again Seraphina pointed at the cotton candy. "You know it's not blueberry, right?" he asked. She nodded.

"I wanna try it!"

So, Jack set her back down, she rushed back out to Pitch's side, and happily accepted her frozen treat. "Now daddy, you get something!" she ordered cheerfully.

Pitch smiled down at her. "Okay sweety, go pick us out a table," he said. She hurried off and then Pitch returned his attention to Jack.

Smiling, Jack asked, "What can I getcha?"

"I guess I'll have the orange cooler," he said, "I don't much care for sweets."

"Really?" Jack asked, "Odd considering the sweet tooth your daughter's got!" Pitch only laughed and watched as Jack prepared him the ice cream mixed drink.

Once he paid, Jack turned to Bubbles. "Bubs, think you can cover for me while I go on break?" She groaned and dragged herself up to the register.

Jack sat down with the little family, smiling as Seraphina ate her ice cream. Pitch drank watching both her and Jack.

"We're gonna have our sleepover tonight, right?" she asked, smiling brightly.

"Of course!" Jack said, patting her head. "Oh, that reminds me," he turned to Pitch, "Could I borrow your phone again?"

Pitch handed it to him and he decided to call Nick. Since Sandy could only respond to text messages and he wouldn't know Pitch's number. Nick answered thinking it was Pitch.

"Haha, no Nick, this is Jack. Yeah, hi! I know, he's letting me borrow his phone. Yeah, he's at the shop. Listen, I was wondering, could I stay at your place for a while? Huh? No, T didn't kick me out, her boyfriend kinda did. No, not tonight, tomorrow. Cool? Yeah, awesome. Alright, I'll see ya soon!"

He turned it off and handed it back to Pitch. "He thought it was you," he said, smiling. Pitch smiled back and tucked his phone away. Now Jack looked back to Seraphina. "Are we gonna stay up and tell stories all night?" he asked.

She shook her head. "Mm-mm! Daddy is!" she pointed to her father as she said it.

Jack smiled at the black haired man. "I hope you've got some good stories," he said, "I'm notorious for falling asleep during group readings." Pitch chuckled warmly at that.

During Jack's shift at the club he kept wandering off to how excited he was to spend the night at Pitch's again. Sure, all they were going to do were kiddy activities, but they seemed like the best kind. Jack knew he'd never be able to tell Pitch how thankful he really was that he had given him a place, and probably would never be able to repay him, but he hoped spending time with the two of them would sort of make up for it.

His co-workers were angry that he got to clock out early, but he honestly didn't care. He was going off to have a nice night. Screw them and what they thought.

He got back to Pitch's house, happy to find that the door was unlocked. 'Hey," he said as he stepped inside. Seraphina bounded over to hug him with a big smile, and Pitch followed behind slowly.

The three of them got right to work building yet another magnificent pillow fort. They splayed blankets and pillows from upstairs across the floor, fully planning to sleep there that night, and they made popcorn and gathered a few sodas to drink amongst them. (Sera wanted to try each of theirs.)

Jack had his arms crossed over a pillow, chin rested in the space between them, Sera mimicked him to a tee, and Pitch sat cross legged before the two of them. It was dark outside, and the only light they had was a few of those light up animal pillows that Seraphina brought down. But it was nicer this way. Pitch told a fantastic story about a general fighting against these things called 'fearlings' in the Golden War. He fought to destroy all nightmares and bad dreams and give children hope and joy.

Halfway through the glorious tale Seraphina drifted off to sleep. Jack stayed awake, smiling up as Pitch continued telling the story. "You do this a lot, don't you?" he asked, yawning with the onset of sleep.

"I'm used to continuing the story until I finish," he said, "She falls asleep every time and always asks when she wakes up if the story had a happy ending."

Jack smiled. "Does this one?" He fell asleep as Pitch whispered the answer.

"Yes."


	9. Cookies and Cream

_I'm having way too much fun with this story…_

**Just Eat The Ice Cream – Chapter Eight: Cookies and Cream**

Somehow, some way, both sleeping children had ended up moving from the pillows they rested on to snuggled in Pitch's arms during the night. Jack woke with his back pressed against Pitch's legs and his head nuzzled into his stomach. At first he didn't understand why he was staring at Seraphina's feet, but a slight twitch of movement around his shoulders made hi forget that and look. Pitch had one arm around him and the other around his daughter. So that's why he was staring at a pair of pink sock clad feet.

Smiling, Jack scooted himself back a little, further into the warm embrace, and tried to go back to sleep. It didn't work- the phone rang at the exact moment he closed his eyes. He groaned unhappily at the loud ringing and tried to hide his face in the blankets beneath him.

Pitch lifted himself up, trying his best not to wake either of them, and walked to another room. Jack sighed as the awful ringing stopped. Gosh, he loved silence.

He actually did sleep after that, if only for a little while longer. Pitch had to come back and wake the two of them. Jack groaned as unhappily as Sera did- neither one of them wanted to move.

"Jack, you have to be at work soon," he said, shaking his shoulder, "And I have to head to work too."

Jack groaned. "I don' wanna goooo…!" He blinked open heavy eyes and frowned up at Pitch. "Can't I just stay and sleep all day?"

"Not if you want to keep your job," he replied. Once he was sure the teenager was awake, he moved to his daughter and picked her up. He said she needed some more sleep and that the babysitter would be here soon. Jack wished he could stay and sleep while a babysitter took care of him.

Sitting up and stretching, Jack spoke when Pitch came back down. "Ironic how when you get older you want to do things you didn't like as a child, huh?" he yawned, "Taking naps and getting carried everywhere…" Pitch just smiled and helped him to his feet- somehow Jack had managed to get his legs tangled in the blankets. When he was standing he had to bounce on his left foot and shake his right to free it from the grips of a fuzzy purple comforter. No wonder socks were seen as monsters, blankets came in a pretty close second!

He had to gather up all of his things for today- he was planning on stopping by Nick's to drop them off after his shift at the shop. And as Pitch allowed him to eat his breakfast, he asked, "Will I be seeing you again?"

Pitch smiled. "Probably not at the shop for a while," he said, "I've already spoiled Sera too much for her own good. You're always welcome to come back. I'm sure she'd love to spend more time with you."

"Thanks," Jack said, smiling and munching on some toast.

Sipping what Jack assumed was tea, Pitch said, "And feel free to stop by my office whenever you need to."

Jack blinked. "But I don't have the money to pay for it," he said, pouting.

Pitch shrugged his shoulders. "I have open gaps between patients… Still too new, not many people know I'm here. I'd be happy to have some company during those breaks," he said, "Of course with the hours you work; I don't expect to be seeing you any time soon." Jack laughed at that and said 'yeah'. He did work some pretty crappy hours.

Leaving was weird. Jack felt like he should have said goodbye to Seraphina before leaving. But he was already probably going to just barely show up on time, so any more wasted minutes wouldn't be in his favor.

He went to the counter and immediately noticed that the girl working there today was NOT Bubbles. "Who're you?" he asked boldly.

The curly haired girl introduced herself as Bella. (Why all the names that started with Bs?) She said Bubbles was out today and she was the one who usually drove the trucks. Jack made the comment at this point of saying, "So that's why I've never seen you before."

She seemed a lot nicer than Bubbles. She offered to have them trade places every few hours or so. So instead of having his legs fall asleep from standing for so long, Jack got to walk around, clean up tables, and _not_ talk to annoying little kids. Why couldn't Bella work with him all the time?

Jack nearly died during the day because of her, though. She dropped an entire thing of ice cubes just as he was walking and he slid into the wall. He almost hit his head on the edge of the counter. She apologized profusely for it, but it still hurt. He was pretty sure he'd have a bruise on his chest after that.

When he finished his shift he ran to Nick's house to drop off his bags. Nick was home, thankfully, and he was able to put it in the extra room he had. He told his friend he'd be back around four in the morning, to which he replied, "I will wait with gun ready if is not you." Jack went to the club laughing like a fool.

Jack had honestly lost track of what day it was. He thought it was probably Tuesday. At the club he could never tell. Days blurred together in the flashing lights and pounding music. But overall it was a nice night. All of his customers mostly just wanted the chance to dance. He was honestly okay with that- less work for him to do.

Not to say it wasn't tiring. By the time he finished he was exhausted and was looking forward to sleeping. He walked back to Nick's by himself, semi wary as there were groups of people soliciting around some cars. He hoped he wouldn't be mugged.

Nick did in fact have his gun when Jack showed up. It kind of terrified him- he was pointing it right in his face. Jack looked at his old friend like he was crazy, and then Nick clicked it and nothing happened. He laughed loudly. "Is not loaded! Is just for intimidation!" he said, patting Jack on the back roughly. Jack chuckled nervously and walked with him back to the extra room. Nick told him to get a good night's sleep.

Many people probably would have thought that a man Nick's age giving a kid his age a room to sleep in would be pedophilic, but in reality, Nick didn't see Jack in any way other than as a little troublemaking teenager. (Which was what he was.) Nick was a child at heart, and loved spending time with his nieces and nephews and any other kid who didn't think he was scary looking with all his tattoos.

Jack yawned happily when he woke up- Nick bought the plushest mattresses. He loved it. He could bounce on it with a glass of red wine right beside him and it wouldn't even move. He compared it to sleeping on a big fluffy cloud.

Nick let him have a wonderfully meaty breakfast. Sausages and bacon and ham and anything else he wanted. Jack was just happy he was willing to make him all this. "I owe you one," he said as he bit into a sausage link. Nick laughed and returned to the fridge to get himself some stuff to have with his own breakfast. Jack noted the gold ring he always had on his thumb. A gift from his late partner- who Jack knew nothing about. Nick refused to even tell him if it had been a man or a woman. Jack had learned not to press into it and just Nick live his life in secret.

Or at least that aspect of his life. Everything else he did was no secret. He was such a gossiper that he often shared more of his own goings on than others'. Jack loved listening to him blabber about how his neighbor had been having strangely young men over at her house a lot recently. He kept calling her a hussy, which Jack thought was a fun word.

"Nick, if you keep me here any longer with your stories, I'm gonna be late for work and my boss is gonna fire me," he said at last. Nick groaned, throwing his hands in the air, and let him leave.

He got to work and was greeted by the familiar face of Bubbles. So much for Bella… Jack just got back to work, knowing very well that he'd only get to do anything else when he went on break. Nobody spectacular came in today, which was a little disappointing, but Jack did at least get to give out two strawberries to these odd little twins that came in.

The next few days went by pretty much the same way. Normally. It was only on Friday when he was cleaning the counters did he get a surprise visitor. Tina.

She came running inside, demanding to know why he wasn't at her house and why none of his stuff was either. "Look, Tina, it was obvious I was invading on your love life, so I stepped out," he said. He was actually a little disappointed it took her this long to notice his absence. "Your man didn't like me being there. He felt like I was a leech."

Pouting unhappily, she said, "Jack, you could have told me. I would have talked to Robin. I would have explained everything."

He waved his hand as he cleaned out one of the scoops. "Nah, it's fine. I'm staying with Nick for a little while right now. He's just as fun to hang with," he said, setting the metal thing into a bath of hot water. Again Tina pouted at him. "So where _is_ Mr. Robin?" he asked.

"He's working right now," she said, "But I noticed you weren't at home, and when I couldn't find your stuff either I panicked." Jack rolled his eyes- of course, once they weren't together she noticed.

Jack rolled his shoulders. "It's fine anyway, Nick's got it," he said. Jack thought to himself about how badly he needed a cell phone. He had had to borrow Pitch's to get a hold of Nick in the first place. Having his own would have been better. "Hey, you know a cheap phone plan I can get?"

Tina rolled her eyes at him and wrote down the address to the place she got her phone service. "I've been telling you to get your own phone for years- **now** you suddenly listen to me?"

"Hey, it's not my fault. Cell phone bills are expensive," he grumbled, "Besides, I'm only getting it so I can call you guys whenever I need you. Or text Sandy…" Tina frowned.

"Well how'd you get a hold of Nick? I know for a fact that you didn't use my phone," she had her hands on her hips as she spoke, a clear sign that she was annoyed with him.

"I borrowed somebody else's," he answered, "T, it's no big deal. I'm doing what you said, so you should be happy."

"I'm mad you just up and left and didn't tell me," she said. Jack's face fell and he apologized softly. She was right- he hadn't even said anything when he left. He had just… left!

"Sorry T, next time I'll let you know," he said. She said 'good' and then headed on her way. Oddly enough, Tina did have to work as well. Jack was just happy to have cleared things up with her.

It was stripper night at the club again. Jack wanted to die. Even if it was female stripper night, he still got hounded. If anything it was worse this way- the club was filled with so many middle aged men! He was almost sure to get groped tonight!

He nearly hurled when he found Manny's 'friend' there again. Manny wasn't, thank goodness, at least _he_ had some class, but the disgusting pervert who had grabbed his ass was. And what was worse, he had to service his table! He was positive he was going to throw up at some point during the night.

Jack made sure never to turn his back on the pervert. Each time he left, he went sideways or walked backwards away from him. He didn't trust him. Even as the man was gawking at the girls on stage, he still kept his guard up.

But Jack's luck ran out. He was reckless. He made one false turn and the man was squeezing his buttocks again. Scowling down at the sitting freak, he hissed, "Why the hell were you even allowed back in here?" He slapped his hand off, but was grabbed right back, even yanked forward so that he could really grope at him. Jack stomped the man's foot and stormed off, growling under his breath, "Why come to the fucking _female_ night if all you're gonna do is grab at _my_ junk?!"

He reported it to his manager, who went and kicked him out, and tried to go about his night normally.


	10. Rocky Road

**Just Eat The Ice Cream – Chapter Nine: Rocky Road**

Jack was glad it was finally Monday. He had the day off from both the shop _and_ the club tonight! He took this rare opportunity to sleep until one o'clock. It was heavenly. Nick let him snooze away until he felt like getting up. That cloud bed was the best place to sleep.

Getting up, Jack wandered out into the hall of the house. He found a note left from Nick on the fridge. He had gone to work already. The front door was locked, so if he left the house, he'd have to take the spare key from inside the ice box. Why Nick left his spare key in there, Jack would never know.

He went out after having a small something to eat. "Where to go, where to go…" he mumbled to himself, wandering the streets of town. After some thought, he chose to finally go and buy himself a cell phone. He took a plan that allowed him to call locally and would only be billed for the minutes he used. Perfect. The phone he got was a gray blue color similar to denim jeans, but the case for it was solid black and rubbery. He quickly set his friends' number into his contacts. The benefit of not having a cell phone was being able to have their numbers memorized.

Continuing to wander the streets, Jack yelped when someone grabbed his ass. Spinning around, he nearly screamed with rage seeing the same man from the club. "What the fuck!?" he shouted, kicking his hands off, "Fucking pervert!" And he rushed off, trying to keep somewhere nobody would grab at him.

Jack checked the time on his new phone. Would Pitch be open? Maybe he could go vent to him about the freaks grabbing at his butt. Mostly he just wanted to sit in the fancy chair again. With a smile, he went to the building and sat in the waiting room.

Pitch looked surprised to see him sitting out in the room. "Got some time off?" he asked, smiling as Jack waltzed right into the room and plopped himself down on the leather shrink chair he loved so much. Jack nodded with a big grin. Smiling some more, Pitch sat himself down in his own chair and faced Jack. "Did you actually come to see me or did you just want to sit in the chair?" he asked.

Laughing lightly, Jack said, "A little bit of both." Pitch rolled his eyes with a chuckle.

"Well, go right ahead and start jabbering," he said, motioning to him, "I won't write anything down this time either."

Jack crossed his feet over each other. "Well, I mostly just wanted to come and complain."

"I get that a lot," Pitch said, "Go right ahead."

Smiling, Jack let his head rest back on the chair. "Okay, so a couple days ago I was at the club and Manny was there," Pitch looked intrigued by this, but said nothing, "And he had some friends. I think they were possible business partners. Anyway, one of them was being a real douche. I was just trying to do my job and get drinks for another table and the pervert grabbed me, pulled me to the dance floor, and started feeling me up." Pitch looked pretty shocked to hear this. "I reported him to my manager, but he was back again the other night. It was stripper night, so I was kinda hopeful he wasn't gonna touch me or anything.."

"Wait; was Manny there this time, or just the man?" Pitch asked, slightly lost in Jack's tale.

"Just the guy," Jack said, "And even though I hoped he'd just ogle the dancers, I tried to avoid getting too near him. But he grabbed me again, almost pulled me into his lap, actually, and started squeezing at me again. I reported him again, and he got kicked out again, but when I was walking in town today he was out and apparently decided it would be okay to grope me in public."

"He followed you?" Pitch asked, looking surprised and worried.

"I don't really know," Jack replied, "If he was following me, I didn't realize it. But I think it was just bad luck…" Pitch nodded softly. Jack sat up. "That's basically all I wanted to whine about."

Now Pitch laughed. Shaking his head, the black haired man said, "I don't think of it as whining. You just wanted someone to listen to your problems. That's my job. I get it a lot."

Jack propped his arms behind his head and smiled at the space man. "I don't think I'd be able to handle it. I'd end up yelling at my customers. I'd tell them to quit complaining and suck it up."

Again Pitch laughed. "You wouldn't last very long, then," he said, "Nobody goes to a therapist to get shouted at."

"Be pretty weird if they did," he said. Pitch chuckled at him and stood up. He went to the closet next to him and then handed him a squishy orange alien looking man. Jack squeezed it and its eyes popped out.

He looked up at the shrink. "You seemed pretty frustrated about this," he said, pointing at the toy, "This should help a little bit. You've struck back against your attackers, haven't you?"

Smiling sheepishly, Jack said, "Maybe I smacked one or two of them with a food tray a couple times…" Pitch smirked at that and went back to his chair. Jack sat there and squeezed the toy over and over again; laughing at how silly it looked when its eyes bugged out.

Pitch sat and began writing on the papers covering his desk. Jack watched him for a second before asking, "Whatchya doin?" Pitch chuckled.

"Just filling out some paperwork. You don't mind, do you?"

"Nah," Jack said, flopping back down on the chair, holding the toy in front of his face and squishing it again. "I'm cool with being ignored by my shrink." Pitch laughed at him again and turned back toward him.

"Did you have anything else you wanted to talk about? I've got another appointment in about half an hour," he said, resting his elbows on his knees.

Jack grinned at him. "How's Sera doing?" he asked. Pitch sighed and shook his head.

"She's fine," he said, "She was a little upset that you were gone before she woke up the other day, though." Jack pouted at that.

"She's a sweety," he said, "Thanks to the shop I thought I'd never wanna see another little kid ever again in my life." Pitch gave him a curious look. "After dealing with about fifty thousand tantrums and 'mommy I want ice cream's, you start to figure every kid's the same." Pitch gave him a little frown. "Sera's different, though. An absolute sweetheart."

Pitch leaned back in his chair and smiled. "She adores you," he said, "Won't stop asking me when the next time she'll get to see her ice cream man will be."

Jack couldn't hold back the grin that spread across his face. "Adores _me_? Naw, you're her dad- all her adoration goes to you! You're her hero!"

Smiling warmly, Pitch just sat in his chair. Jack smiled back and squeezed the orange alien man again. He rested in the leather chair in silence for a little while. When Pitch said it was time for his next appointment, Jack honestly didn't feel like leaving. Even without Seraphina it was nice spending time with the tall man. Maybe it was just because it was in a setting where he was obligated to listen to everything he said, but Jack enjoyed that. Having someone who wouldn't interrupt you while you whined about trivial things.

"Maybe I'll be paying you and Sera a visit sometime soon," he suggested as he left.

Pitch smiled. "I'd like that," he said. He said goodbye and ushered in his next patient. Jack waved at him and then went on his way. He had the whole day to himself; he had a lot of free time to do whatever he wanted. But what did he want? He felt like going to an amusement park.

There was one a few miles away, Jack could walk to it. When he got there his legs felt like pudding, so he immediately went to a kiddy ride that had no line. He got to sit down quickly and ride out his exhaustion with tiny rolling hills and spinning carts. Once that was done he went to what he really wanted to get at- the big roller coasters. He went on every single one- he loved the adrenaline rush and the fun!

He had gone on each ride six times by now and was feeling pretty winded. He made a stop to get some fries. As he munched on the salty snack, he figured he may as well head home. Maybe he could stop by Pitch's house to say hello to Seraphina. It was only six thirty, there was time.

When he got to the grey house it was nearing seventy twenty, but he figured it would be okay to pop in for a visit. He walked up and knocked on the door.

Pitch was the one who opened it. At first he looked surprised to see it was him, but he quickly smiled. He turned his head and called to his daughter. "Sera, come see who's here!"

She poked her little head around the corner and squealed with delight. "Ice cream man!" she shouted, running up and hugging around his legs. She bounced up and down as she squeezed his knees, cheering about how he was here.

Pitch had to yank her off of him. "We were waiting for pizza!" she announced, "Daddy thought it was him!"

Jack smiled. "Nope, not the pizza man, just ice cream," he said.

"They should make pizza ice cream," Seraphina said, stepping out of the way so Pitch could close the door and let Jack in.

"I don't think that'd taste very good," he replied, smiling down at her. She smiled back and then looked to her father.

"Daddy, is the ice cream man staying for movie night and pizza?" she asked.

"If he wants," Pitch said, looking at Jack. Jack looked back to Sera and choked back the loud guffaw at seeing the pleading look on her face. Pitch looked and quickly scolded her for it. "Sera, let him decide."

Jack agreed to stay for pizza and movies. He sat himself on the couch, his little friend clambering right up beside him, and asked, "So what were you guys planning on watching?"

"We were gonna watch the Little Mermaid!" Seraphina replied, holding up the DVD box.

Pitch came and sat with them. "It's Sera's favorite," he said. Jack smiled.

"My favorite's the Lion King," he said, poking Sera's forehead.

"We don't start the movie until we get pizza," she informed him, "We have to wait for pizza." Jack didn't argue it. He just asked what they should do until the pizza guy showed up. Bouncing, she said, "We could tell each other secrets!"

Jack had to start. "One time I accidentally locked my friend inside the ice cream room at work," he told her.

She beamed at that, giggling fiercely. "One time I put chocolate syrup in daddy's coffee!" she said. Jack looked at Pitch, who just smiled and rolled his eyes.

They continued with the secret sharing. Sera told Jack that she sleeps with a blankie and her favorite beary. Jack told her he sleeps at his friend's house. Then there was a knock at the door and Pitch had to go up and pay the pizza guy.

"My daddy's really shy," Seraphina said in a not-so-quiet whisper.

Jack blinked and grinned over at Pitch. "Really? He doesn't seem it," he said.

But she nodded her head. "Mmhmm! He is! Once, a long time ago, he said he really liked our mailman, but he was too scared to talk to him!" Jack heard Pitch gasp in the middle of her story, and he was heading over, saying her name warningly.

Jack looked up at him with a smile. "So that's why you're not married!" he said, "Well, that makes sense. You did say Seraphina understood." Pitch's pale cheeks were a deep pink color by this point.

He picked up his daughter and whispered a scolding to her. "Sweety, what have I told you about sharing someone else's secrets?"

"To not to," she said, looking down with a pouty lip. Pitch sighed and rubbed her head gently.

"It's okay," he said, "Come on, pizza's here." She hopped right off his lap and rushed to grab herself a slice. Pitch let Jack go before he did, which Jack thought was very polite, and then they all returned to the couch and started the movie about a red haired singing mermaid.

Jack couldn't help but glance over at Pitch during a few points in the movie. So Pitch was gay… He was kind of surprised, but when he really thought about it, it sort of made sense. Smiling, he returned his gaze to the film. No matter what Pitch was, he was an awesome dad and a fun alien to hang around with.


	11. Rainbow Sherbet

**Just Eat The Ice Cream – Chapter Ten: Rainbow Sherbet**

The movie night was actually really nice. Jack had forgotten how much fun watching a little kid's movie could be. After the movie was over, of course Seraphina wanted to play another game. She wanted to play house. And as the game started, he quickly saw that the house game became pretty similar to the castle game. They were a family of superheroes and for some reason Jack was the mommy superhero. "Why can't I be the big brother?" he asked.

"Because then it wouldn't make sense!" she said in response. Jack chose not to ask questions after that. He just enjoyed the playing. The night went from him flying her around the room, to Pitch turning invisible and turning evil and robbing a bank, to a super snack break for more pizza, and then another story time on the couch. Sera was cuddled up against her father as he told another story. This one was about Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny working together. She fell asleep at the halfway point again.

Smiling at her, Pitch asked Jack, "Do you still want to hear the end?"

"Nah, I just wanna know if it has a happy ending," he replied, kicking one foot up and down.

"It does," he said, adjusting how Sera was sleeping, "Most of the stories do." Jack said it was still important to know. Pitch rolled his eyes at him for that one.

Getting up, Jack said, "Well, I should probably be going. This was fun." Pitch remained on the couch, waved goodbye, and told him to have a good night.

Jack came back to Nick's house before the old coot did, so he decided to surprise him. He went to his kitchen and began baking cookies for him. He knew he loved sugar cookies, so that was what he focused on. He finished two batches when he heard the door open and close.

"Hiya!" he shouted from the kitchen, leaning his head as far back as he could to peer down the hall to see him.

Manny was over. Jack smiled and gave him a wave too. Nick walked to the kitchen and gawked at the plate of cookies. "Did you make these?"

"Mmhmm!" Jack replied, nodding with a smile, "I wanted to surprise you!"

Biting into the sweet treat, Nick said, "Well you certainly did. This is fantastic!"

Manny had some of the cookies with him. They all sat at the table and talked for a little while. Manny said he had heard about what his friend had done to him at the club. "I'm very sorry about his behavior," he said, "We are **not** doing any business with the likes of him."

Jack smiled. "Thanks," he said, "I appreciate it." And after that they talked for a while longer. Manny was thinking of writing a new book about a child who collected the balloons that drifted into space. "A space child, I like it!"

Jack had to go to sleep first. He needed a good night's rest for the next morning. And luckily, he got it. He felt so well rested when he woke up.

He went to work and dealt with the string of irritating whiny little kids. At the club he dealt with loud party-goers. It went in a circle like that for about five days before Eric paid him a visit at the shop.

"Heya buddy," he said, smiling, "No hard feelings about mom, right?"

Jack smiled back. "No, of course not," he said, "I totally get it."

Jack took his break and sat with Eric near the window. "So you getting close to being able to buy that apartment?" his friend asked.

Nodding, Jack said, "Should only be another week and I'll finally be able to have enough to rent it and make the payments for certain for the first three weeks."

"I'm happy for ya," he said. The two sat and chatted for a good long while. Jack was really looking forward to having his own place, not having to mooch off friends, and being able to return to a non-changing home.

When he finally got the little apartment he was ecstatic. Sure, it only had one bedroom and one bathroom and wasn't very big, but it was all he needed and it was perfect. He got to stock a fridge for the first time in months, and got to hang up his clothes in an actual closet and not leave them bundled up in his three bags. The first day after having it, he had off, so he got to wake up inside on his own time and wear something besides black and white.

He lounged on the bed for several hours. He still had to work at the club that night, but he was relishing the minutes he didn't have to wear those pants or that shirt. The apartment came with a TV, but he was only charged for it if he actually used it. He hadn't turned it on once.

How many hours did he have before work? Six? Well, that seemed like enough time to go do something out on the town. There was a new movie coming out that he wanted to see. He grabbed some money, went to the theater, bought popcorn and a slushie, and plopped down to enjoy the show. He groaned through all twenty five minutes of the other commercials, but the movie itself wasn't bad. Lots of action, limited romancing, and no cheesy puns anywhere.

Work was nothing like that movie. There was a surplus of couples romancing, no action, and too many cheesy pickup lines. Someone actually tried to ask him out, too. The guy seemed attractive enough; he just wasn't Jack's type.

So, after having rejected one of his customers, Jack went about his business normally. Nothing too eccentric to report, really. Except of course for the chat he had with his manager off in the corner of the bar.

He was being asked by him to be one of the strippers in two nights. "What the hell? No! Why would you even ask?!"

"Customers have been asking for you," he said, "An entire table the other night! They wanna see you on stage!"

"They wanna see me stripping!" Jack shouted unhappily, "Why the hell would I!? I already get groped all the time here!"

"I was hoping you'd ask," Tim said, "I'd be willing to pay you triple for the night. Even give you all of the loose money we collect."

"The money they _throw_ at the strippers?!"

The manager sighed. "Jack, you're looking at all the negatives. This is some serious money we're talking about. Triple your usual salary!"

Scowling at him, Jack muttered, "I'll have to think about it." His manager patted him on the back and went on his way.

Jack made a special trip to Tina's that night. He didn't care if Robin **was** over. He figured asking a female friend would be his best bet.

They were sitting together in her living room at the minute. "So, he wants you to be part of the strip dancing group this Friday…?" she asked.

"Yes!" Jack answered, a little too loudly, "I don't want to do it!"

"But he's offering you three times the pay _to_ do it?" she asked. Jack nodded unhappily. Pouting, Tina shrugged. "If you don't feel comfortable doing it, then don't. It's your choice. If it were me, I'd say no. But that's because I'm with someone. I feel like if you're in a relationship it'd be borderline cheating."

Jack frowned. "But I'm not in a relationship," he said, "For me, do you think I should or shouldn't so it?"

Again she shrugged. "It's your choice, Jack."

Scowling angrily, Jack decided to pay a visit to the therapist he knew. Maybe he just wasn't asking the right person about this.

He had to knock on the door seven times before Pitch finally opened it. He guessed he had looked through the peep hole, because he didn't look surprised to see him. He did look tired, though. Like he had just gotten out of bed. (He probably had.)

"Jack?" he said, rubbing one of his eyes, "It's five in the morning, what are you doing here?"

Arms crossed over his chest, still scowling, Jack said, "I just needed someone to talk to. I figured you'd be best… After Tina was no help."

The tall man yawned and let him inside. Groaning softly, he went to the kitchen and made himself some coffee. Turning to Jack, he asked, "Like some?"

"Sure," Jack replied, sitting down at the table in the attached dining area. Pitch made them both coffee, offering Jack cream and sugar, which he took. Jack was a little surprised that Pitch took his straight black.

Yawning again, Pitch asked, "So… What can I help you with?" Jack felt bad seeing him so tired. He had a black robe around himself and he was obviously not quite in-sorts yet, his normally smooth hair was messy.

Sighing, Jack said, "It's the club… My boss wants me to strip this Friday." Pitch nearly choked on his coffee at that bold statement. Jack apologized.

"Goodness," he hissed, wiping his face clean, "Next time warn me if it's something like that. I was assuming it was sleeping space troubles."

"Sorry," Jack said again. "But… Anyway, he wants me to strip… He says customers have been asking for me… And… I don't really want to do it. He's offering to pay me triple that night, but I just feel dirty about even considering it…"

Pitch nodded as he sipped his drink. "What's keeping the thought in your head?" he asked, "You obviously don't feel comfortable with the idea of doing it, and you even seem distasteful about the money. What's making you even think about it?"

Jack let his shoulders fall as he exhaled. "I dunno… I just…" he sighed again, "I don't know… It's just… Bothering me…" He looked to Pitch's liquid amber eyes for support.

The tall man thought it over for a minute or two. "Do you long for attention like that? Getting people to see you as attractive?" he asked. Jack gave him a funny look for it, so he said, "To help see if there's possibly a psychological reason for it bugging you so much."

"No," Jack replied, frowning, "I get assaulted often enough. I don't want more hassle."

"Well that could be why you're still fussing over it," he said, "Maybe you feel so insulted at the idea that you're still angry he even asked you when he clearly knows what's been happening." Jack blinked- he never thought about it that way before. Was he just mad?

"So… if I calm down and try to forget about it, just say no, you think it'll stop bugging me so much?"

"Worth a try," Pitch said, shrugging. He yawned again after that. "Don't think the caffeine's kicking in…" he grumbled.

"I am sorry about that," Jack said quietly, "I shouldn't have just barged in like this…"

Pitch waved his hand. "It's fine. If I can manage to get back to sleep then there's no harm in it," he said, dumping out the rest of his coffee and setting the mug on the counter. He mumbled something like "I'll wash that later…" and looked back at Jack. "You're welcome to sleep on the couch if you want," he said, "I don't particularly feel up to anything besides sleeping. Sorry…"

Jack smiled. "Nah, it's okay. Thanks, by the way, I guess I could try and get in a few hours of sleep." Pitch nodded sleepily and went up the stairs, calling a quiet 'night' back to him. Jack said goodnight back and hopped onto the couch. "Technically it's morning, but whatever…"

He laid back and tried to relax into sleep. It took him a long time, but eventually he managed to catch some shut eye. He woke up when he heard footsteps coming down the stairs. Lifting his head, he wasn't surprised to see that it was only Pitch. Sera was probably sleeping in.

"Morning," he called from the cushions. Pitch waved his hand in reply and went to get a drink. Jack probably shouldn't have felt this comfortable in somebody else's home, but he had gotten so used to house crashing that it seemed normal.

Getting up, he walked over to the kitchen and smiled as Pitch prepared himself tea. "I got my own apartment," he said, "Did I tell you?"

Pitch blinked at him, but quickly smiled. "No, you didn't," he replied, taking a sip, "Is it nice? Having somewhere to call your own?" Jack nodded with a big grin.

"I do sorta miss getting to visit all my friends every night, though," he said, "But I feel better cuz now I'm not mooching off them." Pitch smiled at him behind his cup. "And I do miss getting to hang out with you and Sera." Now Jack could definitely see the smile hiding behind the cup.

"You just enjoy coming here because you have a playmate," he said, sipping some more. Jack noted that he didn't slurp- was he polite in everything he did?

"That's not true!" he argued, "You're fun to hang with too! You're like the only person who listens to me when I complain about stupid stuff!" Pitch chuckled at that. Looking at the clock, Jack gave a mildly annoyed groan. "I gotta get back to my apartment so I can get ready for work… I'll catch ya later." Pitch waved him off when he left and Jack had to rush back to change pants and switch shirts. He already had the apron with him, but he hadn't been smart enough to remember that he couldn't wear the same outfit from the day before.

If he did, he'd probably look like a sort of homeless guy.


	12. Moose tracks

_Honestly, I'm really just enjoying all the silliness in this stupid story. So many unlikely situations. I just love it. Literature is so much better than real life._

**Just Eat The Ice Cream – Chapter Eleven: Moose tracks**

Jack got to work and sat at the counter thinking about stuff he had recently listened to. Thanks to Seraphina and her mermaid movie, Jack had gone back and re-watched Beauty and the Beast. He felt like mentioning it to Bubbles.

"Did you know that at the very beginning of Beauty and the Beast the narrator says the Beast needs to learn to love another and then earn their love in return? He never says _her love_, he says _their_. So technically they were implying the possibility of homosexuality in a kid's movie!"

She rolled her eyes at him, but replied with, "And in that Chinese one the guy thinks he might be gay for the girl disguised as a man." Jack scowled at her- she wasn't being serious. He was.

He spent the whole day getting more and more confused. When a set of twins came in, he was okay with that. The second group, not so bad. By the third, though, he was a little concerned. There hadn't been this many twins in town before this… And then another group of twins came in. Frowning, Jack scanned the outside of the shop. He saw a camera. Now he scowled- he was on one of those pranking shows.

Cursing under his breath, he swore that they weren't going to get him. He just went on normally, being nice to customers and serving ice creams. Even when the shop was full of nothing but identical twins he didn't react. Bubbles looked dumbfounded, but she deserved it for not noticing the poorly hidden camera outside.

"Why does everybody look the same?" she asked. Jack groaned at her.

He pointed at the camera. "We're on one of those terrible pranking shows. I don't think they're gonna air this, though. I've been onto them since the third group of twins," he said. She looked shocked.

"I'm on TV?!" she flipped a lid. She ran off to fix her make-up. Apparently the fact that he just said they wouldn't air it because it wouldn't be funny didn't matter to her. She had to make herself look good.

While she was gone Jack grudgingly had to clean up a mess at a table near the camera. He decided to make it good, though. He went up, staring directly at the camera the entire time, didn't blink, and scowled as he cleaned. He was basically telling the camera crew that he knew and that he was no idiot.

About three weeks after that Jack got a call from Eric. He said he was on TV. Nearly dropping his phone, Jack told him to record the show so he could see what it was. The moment he got a free moment, he ran to his house to see this.

"I can't believe they actually aired this crap!" he said to himself as they sat. Eric re-played the show he had been watching. He pointed as it started.

The host of the show laughed. "The team tried to get the employees at an ice cream shop," there was the footage of the twins all walking into the shop, "But we just couldn't get past this guy." And it showed Jack as he walked straight at the camera, unblinking. "Man, look at that guy! Got some crazy eyes, don't he?"

Jack scowled as he said that. The narrator then said, "This just proves that you can't always be successful. Plan your pranks well."

"Why are they encouraging people to prank others?" he asked, scowling, "Nobody appreciates getting tricked." Eric shrugged.

"But it's cool that you were on national television, huh?" he asked.

Jack blinked. National? Oh dear God, no! He snapped his head to look at Eric like he was a psychopath. "No! I already get harassed at work! Now there's going to be random strangers talking to me about it! This is terrible! They should have gotten me to sign paperwork agreeing to be shown on television!"

"Jack, calm down. Come on, pal, you're famous!"

Jack stormed out after that. Why would anyone see that as a good thing? He was going to be stalked! Growling angrily, Jack went straight to Pitch's house. He needed to let off steam- Pitch was always willing to listen.

Jack found him inside by himself. He was really confused. "Where's Sera?" he asked.

"At a dance class," he replied, "It lasts for three more hours. I figured I could get something done while I waited. They don't allow parents sitting in on the classes anyway."

"Oh…" Jack mumbled, looking down.

Sitting down on his couch, patting beside him for Jack to sit as well, Pitch asked, "So, what brings you here in such a huff?"

Scowl returning, Jack said, "My friend Eric doesn't understand why I'm mad."

"Then wouldn't it be better talking to him?" Pitch asked, smiling. He crossed one leg over the other and leaned back a little.

"No one listens to me besides you," Jack replied, frowning at his hands. Pitch shifted his position.

After a brief moment of silence, Pitch asked, "Well… Alright… So, why _are_ you mad?"

"I was on some stupid pranking TV show. They never got any paperwork to air it. Now I'm pretty sure I'm gonna be bothered by more people at work and out on the streets. And all Eric can think about is how I was on national TV and now I'm famous," he grumbled, resting one ankle on his knee, "He's stupid. There's nothing good about this."

"Well, maybe to you," Pitch said, "But it certainly seems your friend would much rather be in your shoes." Jack glared furiously at nothing after that. Pitch placed a hand on his elbow, pushing his crossed arms down. "Jack, it's obvious you don't _want_ extra attention. You get enough of it. Maybe to your friend he doesn't see unwanted attention. All he sees is the possibility of becoming rich and famous. Not the possibility of having a stalker trying to have their way with you."

Blinking, Jack let his arms hang at his sides. "Huh…" he muttered, staring at Pitch, "How come you're so smart all the time?" Pitch laughed lightly at that. "Seriously, do you **ever** have a stupid moment?"

"When I'm tired," Pitch said in response, "And when I'm trying to impress somebody." Jack smiled at that. If those were the only stupid moments Pitch ever had he wished he could be him. He had more stupid moments than he'd care to admit.

"Never just during the normal course of your life?" Jack asked, "I'm constantly regretting half of what I say and do because it's so dumb!" Again Pitch laughed.

Jack smiled at his tall friend. He rested back on the couch and sat there for a minute or two, not saying anything. Neither one of them did. And, actually, it wasn't awkwardly quiet. It felt normal. Just like a lull in the conversation.

Pitch smiled and shifted to face him a little more. "I haven't seen you around in a few weeks, how did that stripping issue turn out?" he asked.

"Oh yeah!" Jack said, smiling, "It's good. My boss was okay with me saying no, even though he was disappointed. And after that, it stopped bothering me." He grinned. "You were right, once again. Geeze, you're right about everything aren't you?"

Pitch chuckled. "I wouldn't say anything like that. I've gotten quite a few presents for Sera completely wrong."

"Well that's different," Jack said, "Little kids are fickle. One minute they can like something and the next they like something completely different. I mean like important stuff."

Shrugging his shoulders, Pitch said, "I've been wrong loads of times."

"Can you think of any right now?" Jack asked, not convinced at all that Pitch ever got anything wrong. When Pitch said no he made a point to shout "HA!" and fall off the couch. Pitch jumped up, immediately ready to help him if he was hurt, but when he knelt to check for injuries, Jack just laughed and said he was fine. He pushed his hand away gently. "I'm not hurt, I was just messing with you," he said, sitting up straight, "See?"

Pitch blinked a few times, and then smiled. "You need to stop falling down around me. It seems like every time you do you're getting hurt. One of these days you'll actually break a leg or something and I won't think anything of it," he said. Jack pouted at him for that.

Getting up off the floor, Jack figured he'd best be going. He needed to head to work anyway. "Tell Seraphina I said hi!"

While he worked the club, Jack found himself tripping a lot. When he mentioned it, someone else said they had as well. He talked to his boss and turns out the floors had been waxed. So he was basically guaranteed to fall at some point because of it. Which he did. Fell flat on his face, bum sticking straight up into the air. He got laughed at for it, and nobody helped him to his feet. "Man I wish Pitch were here," he said as he rubbed his chin with a sad whimper.

When he went back to his apartment he didn't feel like sleeping. Probably a bad thing since he had work, but he really just felt like listening to something jazzy and dancing. He turned on some a radio station and began bouncing around his bedroom to the spicy saxophone wailing out jams. Each time there was a hit to a snare drum he'd kick out his foot. He probably looked like a psycho murderer, but he was having too much fun to care.

He actually had a lot of energy the next morning, even though he had gotten no sleep. He was bright eyed and bushy tailed at the shop. He didn't even mind shelling out vanillas. He told himself he should listen to jazz more often.

He got a happy surprise when Pitch and Seraphina showed up. "Hey!" he said as she ran up and hugged his legs. Laughing and patting her head, Jack looked to Pitch and asked, "What's the occasion?"

Shrugging, Pitch said, "It just felt like an ice cream sort of day." Jack grinned at him for that.

Lifting Sera up, he walked her to the barrels. "Which would you like little lady?" She pointed at the creamsicle flavored barrel. She said she liked the orange and white swirlies inside.

Setting her down, letting her run back to her father's side, he went right to work. He gave her a waffle cone, she said she wanted one, and then looked at Pitch. "Anything for you today?"

Pitch raised a hand to about the level of his collar bone. "No, no, that's alright. Another day," he said. Jack smiled anyway and helped him pay. Once again Pitch used the tip jar. He went on his break so he could come and talk with them for a while.

Sera told him all about her dance class from the other day. She said she got a pink tutu and got to keep it, and then she said next time she was going to get a blue one. Jack smiled. "Blue is my favorite color," he said. Her eyes shimmered as he said that and she offered to let him use the tutu once she got it.

He had to leave them after that, but did manage to say a friendly goodbye. Jack went right back to work cleaning everything up.

The club was boring, so Jack made sure to forget everything that happened that night. He was looking forward to working the shop more anyway. At least there he was more likely to see people he knew.

Jack was surprised to see Pitch come in again. This time he was alone. "Sera at dance?" he asked.

Pitch sighed and nodded. "It's lonely at the house, and I don't have any appointments until after she finishes," he said, "I figured I may as well spend a little time here and talk with you."

"Well if you wanna sit around you're gonna have to buy something," he said, smirking, "Company policy." Pitch groaned and just got the orange cooler again.

"I've already told you I don't like sweets," he said, sitting at a table next to him.

Jack chortled. "Hey, don't blame me, blame the company policy!" Pitch gave him an unamused look, which just made Jack smile wider.

They sat and talked for the duration of Jack's ten minute break. When he got to his feet to go back, he said, "Well, even though it was short, I hope I was good company for you Pitch." Pitch smiled up at him but remained seated. He stayed and finished his drink before saying goodbye to Jack.

Jack saw him at the shop a lot more often that week.


	13. Piece of Cake

**Just Eat The Ice Cream – Chapter Twelve: Piece of Cake**

Jack didn't notice it until the fourth day he had seen Pitch at the shop, but he really _was_ making a lot of trips in lately. Jack assumed that he really was lonely without his daughter in the house. Of course, the fifth time he had her with him. Jack was happy to see her again. He told her to make sure to play with her daddy that night- he said he was sad because she was always at dance class. She said she would with the utmost confidence.

Pitch got a bottled water today while Sera got rocky road ice cream. Jack took his break to come and chat with them for a while.

"So how's dance class been going, Sera?" he asked, smiling at his favorite little girl.

Beaming up at him, she said, "I'm gonna have a dance recital in one week! We're gonna do ballet! We're doing the Nutcracker!"

Jack smiled, "Oh, that's great!"

"You're coming to see me, right?" she asked. Pitch immediately said her name slightly scoldingly. Jack said it was alright.

"When is it?" he asked. She said it was Wednesday at noon. "I think I can get off work that day. Sure, Sera, I'd love to come see you dance." She squealed with glee after that.

When his break was over, Jack went to go back to the cash register, but Bubbles told him to clean the counters and the side of the counter in front of the register. Groaning unhappily, he bent down to try and wipe away the scuffs from dozens of little kids' shoes.

And then all at once he heard Seraphina's little voice break his growling.

"You like the ice cream man, don't you daddy?" And instantly Jack heard spluttering. He snapped his head back to stare at the table where they were sitting. Pitch was basically choking on his water, but wasn't facing his direction, so he didn't see the way Jack had looked back. Seraphina was just looking at her father with a blank face, as if nothing were wrong.

Jack found himself smiling as he turned his head back around. Whether or not Pitch knew he had heard her, for some reason knowing that the man possibly had a crush on him made him smile. Heck, even if he didn't and Sera was just spewing nonsense (Which she rarely did) Jack still found the idea of it cute. He had never figured Pitch could like him like that. He always assumed he just thought of him as a nice teenager who was willing to put up with his daughter's antics.

When they left Jack was positive that Pitch's cheeks were red. He just smiled and waved at them.

Jack didn't see Pitch in the shop the next day.

Going through the circles at the club currently, Jack felt like he was falling asleep every time he turned around. Even the blaring music couldn't keep his heavy eyes open. It got so bad he had no choice but to ask Tim if he could head home early.

He did, and instantly fell asleep. When he woke up the next morning, his entire body felt cold. He moaned in pain as he tried to get out of bed- everything ached. Whining some more, he reached for his phone. He texted Sandy. He told him he felt sick and asked if he had a thermometer. Sandy said yes and quickly said he was coming over to see if he was okay.

When the short, deaf man arrived, Jack had barely been able to walk to the door to let him inside. And once he was in, he just dragged his feet across the floor and flopped right back into bed. Sandy quickly went and took his temperature.

"You've got a fever of 102," he told him. Jack groaned unhappily at that and groped the air for his phone.

He called his boss at the shop, telling him that he was ill. He didn't have to fake the slow, sorry sounding voice he had, it was completely real. He then called the club and told Tim the same thing. "I'm really sorry."

"It's okay kiddo; you didn't seem well last night either. You just get better."

He thanked him and set his phone on the pillow next to him, too lazy to put it back on the nightstand. Sandy signed to him that he was going to make him some soup. Jack said okay to that, but he was already walking away. It didn't matter anyway.

Jack nearly fell asleep before Sandy came back. The smaller man had to help lift him into a sitting position. "Do you want me to take off work today to take care of you?" he asked his ill friend.

Shaking his aching head, Jack said, "Nah, just hand me my phone… I'll call Tina or sumthin…" Sandy placed it in his hand and Jack clicked through his contacts.

He heard someone pick up on the other end of the line. "Hey Tina," he said.

The response he got was, "Tina? Jack, this is Nick."

"Oh," Jack said, "Hi Tina."

Sandy signed to Jack to tell Nick to text him. "Sandy says he wants you to text him. Bye."

And the two texted while Jack gently slurped up his soup. Mmm… Chicken noodle… After a few minutes Jack heard knocking at the door.

"That must be Tina," he said. Sandy didn't let him get up, and hurried to let Nick inside. He had told him in the texts that Jack had a fever, so Nick came prepared. He had vitamin C tablets, story books, and several heavy blankets. He told Sandy it was okay to leave, and he went to Jack's bed.

He lifted the soup to spread the blankets over his shivering body, but Jack hardly noticed. He kept slurping, even when the soup wasn't there. Nick set it back down and then sat beside his bed. Jack smiled happily at him, a sleepy look in his blue eyes, and after he finished his soup Nick had him take some of the vitamin C.

The big man read stories to him until he fell asleep.

Waking up, Jack yawned and asked, "Did the story have a happy ending Pitch?"

"Pitch?" Nick repeated, "Jack, this is Nick. Not Tina. Not Pitch. _Nick._"

Jack blinked at him a few times. "When did you get here?" he asked. His head felt better now, but not great. He remembered calling Sandy over and then Tina. He didn't remember calling Nick.

"When you called me," he replied, "You thought you were talking to Tina. Sandy had to tell me what was wrong. He had to go to work, so I stayed to take care of you. You had a fever of 102."

"Wow," Jack muttered, putting his palm on his forehead. It definitely still felt warm. "How long was I out?"

"About five hours," Nick replied, "Feeling better?"

"Much, thanks," he said. Nick only said it was what friends did and offered to go out and buy him some cookies. Jack said no and just napped for the rest of the day.

Sandy came back later to check up on him and get his thermometer back. Jack's temp had dropped to about 99, so he was definitely recovering. "Hey, can I go to Pitch's house?" Jack asked after a while.

"No," Nick said, "You might be contagious, and Pitch has a young daughter. We do not want her getting sick." Jack frowned, but resigned to lying in bed like a vegetable.

"Hey, you're not gonna tell Tina I was sick are you? She'll flip if she finds out," he said, looking up at Nick's hairy face. Nick said no. The last thing Jack needed was someone making his nerves go nuts. So, Jack got to sleep for an entire day. And he had a roommate for the night! (Nick stayed to be sure he didn't get worse during the night.)

The next morning, Jack felt right as rain. He got up and found Nick napping out on the couch. The old geezer asked him how he was, Jack said fine, and they had breakfast.

When he was at the shop, Jack wasn't surprised that Bubbles didn't even ask how he was feeling. He went about his business as per normal. He was disappointed that Pitch didn't pay him a visit today- was it just because of what Seraphina had said? Was he nervous about seeing him now? Jack felt bad.

Maybe he'd pay him a visit at his office sometime. Or he could just see him at the dance recital. He decided to wait until the recital. It was only two days away by this point. Then he'd get to sit in an audience with parents and Pitch and watch Seraphina dance around in her little pink tutu. (Which would definitely prove to be adorable.)

The days couldn't go fast enough. When Wednesday finally came, Jack felt like it had been an eternity to get there. He had never actually gotten an address, so he figured it'd be best to just stop by Pitch's beforehand.

When he knocked on the door he was quickly greeted by Seraphina. Apparently she had been expecting him. When she saw him she squealed and hugged his legs in a death grip. Her shouting drew the attention of her father, who came out from the kitchen and smiled lightly seeing how clingy she was. He came over and pried Jack's legs free. Jack offered him a friendly smile, which Pitch returned, and they all gathered into the car. Sera already had her tutu on, and just like Jack predicted, she looked absolutely precious.

They got to the little place that was having the performance, which was actually a part of the studio, and Sera had to hurry off with all the other kids in her class. (Jack wanted to say girls because he didn't see a single boy in the group, but felt like that would be rude.) He and Pitch had to go to the auditorium with the other parents. Jack felt kind of odd being there. He saw plenty of other gay couples, but he and Pitch weren't an item. He felt kind of like a third wheel.

The two of them sat up front to watch. It took a little while for all the little kids to get ready. Jack noticed that Pitch had a camera with him. Was he planning on filming? Nope. It just clicked. He was taking pictures. At one point while they waited he turned to him and told him to say cheese.

"Okay, now I'll get one of you," Jack said, groping for the camera. Pitch handed it to him and Jack said, "Say Sassafras!" Pitch chuckled at that and Jack got the perfect picture of him smiling. He handed it back to him just as the lights dimmed.

The girls, okay Jack said it, all came onto the stage and everyone clapped for them. The music began and they all started the adorable little routine. Pitch took photos of Sera every chance he got. After a while Jack let himself relax. He leaned back, rested his head on Pitch's shoulder, and watched Seraphina do her little spins.

It wasn't a very long show but it was probably the cutest one Jack had ever seen. When Sera came over to the two of them, smiling proudly, Pitch asked, "Where should we go to celebrate?"

Sera giggled, looking at Jack. "Well we can't go for ice cream, we brought the ice cream man with us!" she informed them cutely.

Jack smiled at that. "How 'bout we go get pizza?" he suggested. Sera jumped at the idea and quickly began saying, 'yeah, yeah, yeah'.

Pitch chuckled and took his daughter's hand. "Pizza it is," he said. Sera walked with him on one side, Jack walked on the other, and at one point Jack noticed her little head peeking back and forth in front and behind her daddy. He had absolutely no idea what she was doing.

"Daddy, how come you're holding my hand but not the ice cream man's?" she asked, looking up at him.

"Because Jack is big enough to not need me to hold his hand," he replied, "You're still little. You could get lost in the crowd."

"Well what if he wanted you to hold his hand so **he** didn't get lost?" she asked, pouting her lower lip.

Pitch smiled at his daughter. "Seraphina..." he gave Jack a smile as well after scolding her with only her name. Jack smiled right back. They walked back to Pitch's car, Seraphina continuously saying that Jack was gonna get lost.

"I'm a big boy, Sera," he told her, "I think I'll be okay. Maybe, if you're really worried, _you_ could hold my hand!" She quickly took him up on that, grabbing his hand and squeezing it tight.


	14. Mocha

**Just Eat The Ice Cream – Chapter Thirteen: Mocha**

The three of them sat at their table and chewed their pizza happily. Pitch had gotten them a pepperoni, stuffed crust (because Jack and Sera refused to stop begging for it), and of course they each got drinks. Sera wanted to try both of theirs once again. (She didn't like root beer.)

Jack had his hand resting on the tabletop. It felt sticky. He almost wanted to complain to their waitress. But he knew from experience waiting that nobody liked being nagged about something as trivial as that.

"So do you like pizza, ice cream man?" Seraphina asked at one point.

Pitch scolded her. "Sera, call him by his name."

Jack smiled anyway. "Yeah, especially when it's stuffed crust," he said, "But my favorite food is definitely brownies." She grinned at him at that and said she liked brownies too.

"Daddy doesn't really like anything like that," she said, frowning, "He doesn't really like sugar."

Shrugging his shoulders, Jack said, "Not everyone likes it. My friend Eric prefers eating carrots to eating cookies." Sera made a 'bleh' face and returned to eating.

Jack looked at Pitch. "Been a while since I've seen you in the shop," he said, "Still coming to visit me while she's in dance class?"

"Oh," Pitch looked away sheepishly at that. "Well.. I would, it's just too much sugar too often… I can't keep showing up and having something packed with all the sweets."

Jack smiled. "You could just come in and get a water, you know," he said, feeling oddly sly, "No one ever said you had to buy an ice cream."

"But you said that I had to buy something," he said.

"Right. _Something_. I never said it had to be ice cream," he said. Then Jack's grin grew. "Hey! You had one of those wrong moments!" He gasped dramatically, Sera quickly mimicking him, and he chuckled as he said, "You actually weren't right about something for once!"

Pitch rolled his eyes. "Alright, alright, so it looks like I actually _do_ make mistakes every now and then." Jack grinned and quickly high fived Seraphina.

After they finished their food and they started to leave, Seraphina asked, "Can Jack sleep over again?"

Pitch smiled at her. "Sweety, Jack has his own place to sleep now. He doesn't need to come by and sleep over anymore."

Jack saw the sad look on her face. He quickly chimed in. "Ah-b-but you guys are always welcome to sleep over at my place!"

Her eyes lit up. She spun her head around to give her dad puppy dog eyes. "Can we sleep over tonight?"

Pitch looked at Jack. "Do you have work?" he asked.

"I do, but I'm pretty sure I can get off if I call right now," he replied. Pitch was prepared to give him his phone, and looked surprised when Jack pulled out his own. Jack chuckled and told him he finally got one. He then called in for Tim and asked if he could have the night off. After some grumbling he agreed.

They made a stop back at Pitch's house so the two of them could get overnight bags ready. Seraphina was bouncing so much Pitch ended up having to do all of it. (Until Jack joined in and helped him pack up pillows and blankets.) Once they had everything they all hopped back into Pitch's car. Jack had to give directions as Pitch drove. The poor man could barely hear him over how much Sera was shouting and squealing about sleeping over at the ice cream man's.

He let them both inside first. "It's not very big, but I hope it's enough," he said. Sera immediately began running around, sticking her nose into everything. She bounced on his bed, asking if it was his. Jack said yes and she squeaked happily.

"Are we sleeping in your bed?" she asked, still bouncing.

Jack smiled. "If you want to, sure. I don't mind sharing."

Pitch took Sera to the bathroom and helped her get changed into pajamas. Jack changed as well while they were gone, settling on a loose grey shirt and some pajama pants. He figured it would be best not to sleep in just his boxers around a little girl.

Jack smiled at them when they came back out. Seraphina had Little Mermaid PJs. She made quite the show of pointing out each character to him. "They're awesome," he said, squatting down to look at her, "My pants only have stripes on them, see? Not as cool as having mermaids."

She told him he needed to buy himself some. Jack laughed at that and they all began re-arranging furniture in the living room to build a little cave for story time. They flicked on a flashlight and turned off all the rest of the lights and settled down on some of the couch cushions.

Both youngers looked to Pitch with big, anticipating eyes. He smiled and quickly began telling the story of a terrible beast that had been trapped inside a witch's castle. Oddly enough the hero in the story was a fairy princess named Seraphina. She flew in to burn the witch, whose weakness was fire and-

"Sera fell asleep," Jack said, looking down at the silent girl.

Pitch smiled and dropped his arms to his sides. "It has a happy ending, before you ask," he said.

Smiling, Jack said, "Nah, actually what I was gonna ask was; is there a princess named ice cream in this one?" Pitch chuckled at that and carefully lifted Seraphina into his arms. Jack gathered up blankets and pillows and headed into the bedroom after them.

Pitch settled his daughter down in the middle and crawled in behind her. Jack went to the opposite side, making sure to give her room to stretch out if needed. He smiled over at Pitch, who was already looking at him, and asked, "So she's totally cool with the fact that she might have two daddies someday?"

Pitch nodded. "I was worried at first that she wouldn't understand why she didn't have a mom," he whispered, "But she's actually a lot smarter than I give her credit for."

"You give her credit for everything, don't say that," Jack scolded with a smirk, "Even if she didn't get it, I'm sure she'd still love you just the same. You're her daddy, she can't _not_ love you."

Pitch scoffed quietly at that. He stroked her hair gently, watching her shoulders rise and fall with her easy breathing. "Sometimes I feel like I _should_ go out there and try to find a mother for her. Just so she can have a normal life…"

"Her life _is_ normal," Jack said, "She goes to dance lessons, eats ice cream, and plays pretend. What's not normal about that?" Pitch smiled. "You're a good dad, Pitch. Why're you sitting here second guessing yourself?"

He rolled his shoulder and said, "I don't really know… I suppose everyone has their insecurities…"

Jack wondered if it would be rudeto say something along the lines of "Like being shy around someone you like". Smiling at the alien man, Jack reached his hand across, over Seraphina's sleeping head, and gently touched Pitch's hair. The man blinked his amber eyes at him in mild confusion.

"Quit worrying your pretty little head," he said teasingly, "You've got a perfect daughter who's lucky to have you as a papa."

Jack retracted his hand after that, but decided to make a move a little bit bolder. He inched forward, placed a soft kiss on Seraphina's forehead, and then moved to Pitch, kissing his as well. "Night, Pitch..." he whispered, "Night, Sera..."

And he rolled himself over to face the wall. "Goodnight Jack..." Pitch whispered back.


	15. Sundae

_Incidentally, I had to make edits to the endings of BOTH the previous chapters. (They just didn't fit!) Do you have ANY idea how confusing having the chapter number say one thing and the story itself say something completely different!?_

**Just Eat The Ice Cream – Chapter Fourteen: Sundae**

Jack was completely used to the sound of his alarm clock going off. He forgot that his bedmates weren't. He felt at least one of them jump (heard them gasp too) when the loud beeping started. He quickly slammed his hand down onto it to turn it off.

Looking over his shoulder, Jack saw Pitch's eyes were open halfway, and Sera's eyes were blinking sleepily. "Sorry," he whispered. Almost immediately Sera's eyes fell shut once more. Jack carefully slid out of the bed and moved to his closet to get his clothes for work.

Behind him, Jack heard a soft groan and then Pitch asked, "You have work today…?"

Jack looked back at him, smiling a little seeing the tall man stretching. His feet went off the edge of Jack's bed he was so tall. "Yeah," he replied, "I don't think I can get off again… Sorry…"

"It's fine," Pitch said, looping an arm behind the other and continuing to stretch. Jack heard the distinct pop of his shoulder. "I have work anyway…"

Deciding that it would be best not to change in the room with them, lest Seraphina wake up and find him half naked, Jack went into his little bathroom and got dressed for the day. When he got back out, he found that Pitch had gotten out of bed and was stretching in the kitchen. Jack said a soft 'hey' to him and asked if he'd like coffee.

Nodding, Pitch said, "Please…" He pressed his hands to his back and stretched until Jack himself heard a crack. Sighing, Pitch said, "I've already told Sera she needs to get up… It'll probably be just another minute now…"

Jack nodded as he went to his coffee maker. (A gift from Tina that he had never been able to use until now. Always had it in storage somewhere.) He began brewing them up some and sat himself down at his little table. Yawning, Pitch sat as well. Looking at the tired father, Jack asked, "Should I make something for breakfast for Sera?"

"Honestly, if you only made eggs I think she'd be happy," he replied. So, Jack got up, got some eggs out of the carton in the fridge, and began work on making some sunny side up. He had microwaveable sausage patties, too, so he popped those in and kept right at the eggs. A few seconds later Seraphina came out of his bedroom, clutching a blanket in one hand and rubbing the sleep from her eyes with the other.

Pitch picked her up and sat at the table with her on his lap. "Look, sweety, Jack's making us breakfast," he said, gently bouncing her. She yawned, but smiled and looked over at Jack.

When he finished, he set a plate in front of her, poured the ready coffee into a mug for Pitch, and asked, "Cream or sugar?"

"Neither, thank you," Pitch said as Jack handed the mug to him.

Jack smirked. "You take your coffee black," he commented, going back and getting a plate for Pitch, "You really do hate sweets." He set Pitch's plate before him, got them both forks, and poured a glass of orange juice for Sera. She grabbed it immediately and drank several big gulps.

He then made himself a plate, having cooked six eggs and emptying his carton, and joined them at the table with his coffee. (A nice scoop of sugar and a dash of cream mixed right in.)

"Sera, say thank you to Jack for cooking for us," Pitch said to his daughter, gently bouncing her again.

Swallowing, she lifted her head and chimed sweetly, "Thank you ice cream man!" Jack laughed- back to calling him that now.

As they ate, Jack asked, "So will I see you at the shop this week?"

Pitch blinked at him. Sighing, he said, "I… If I have time…" It almost sounded like he stuttered, but then again; he did have a little girl on his lap, reaching over him to steal one of his sausage patties. Jack just smiled at him and finished off his food. He got up, grabbed his apron and cap, and then went back to the kitchen to take their plates. He set them in the sink so he could wash them after work, and put the apron on.

Pitch helped Sera change into her new clothes, telling her to head into the bathroom and brush her teeth, and then stood with his own bag. "You don't mind if I change in your room, do you?" he asked.

"No, not at all," Jack said, motioning him ahead. While Pitch was in there, Seraphina came back out of the bathroom, breath minty fresh. She smiled happily at him and quickly lifted her arms up, groping the air in front of him. He quickly gathered that this meant she wanted to be picked up. (Why she couldn't just say so, he didn't know.)

Holding her in his arms, Jack was assaulted by pokes and pinches from the little girl. She giggled as he tried to get her to stop in the gentlest way possible. She only did when another pair of arms pulled her from Jack and a smooth, British voice scolded, "Seraphina, when someone says to stop, you stop."

Jack laughed lightly as she hung her head and whispered a quiet, "Okay…" Pitch shook his head as he set her back down. As soon as her feet touched the ground, she rushed into Jack's bedroom and scrambled up onto his bed.

She started bouncing on it. Pitch jumped forward to stop her, but Jack stopped _him_. He said it was okay. "Honestly," Pitch whispered, "I don't know what's gotten into her… She's usually so well behaved when she's in somebody else's home…"

Jack smiled. "Ah, it's okay," he said, "My bed was messy anyway." Pitch gave him a flat look for that, which made Jack smile. (Which made Pitch smile, but Jack was looking at Sera.)

Finally Pitch decided once and for all that she had wrecked the bed enough. He came into the room and sat her down. "Sera, why are you behaving like this? This is Jack's house, you can't just do whatever you want," he said.

She frowned and looked down at her father's knees. Sighing, Pitch lifted her chin to look at him again. "Sweetheart, what's the matter? Why are you acting like this is your own bedroom?"

"I don' know…" she muttered in response, lip pouty and sad, "I'm sorry…"

After a few minutes of uncomfortable sadness, the two aliens gathered their things and left. Jack smiled at them as they left, he even gave Sera a hug, and then hurried off to work. In actuality, he was lucky his employers were so kind to him. Most people wouldn't be able to get away with all the time he'd been taking off lately.

Jack didn't see either of them in the shop today, which was a little disappointing. In fact, he didn't see anybody he knew today. Shocking how fast he fell back into the normal routine of working in a dull place where he had to deal with random annoying kids.

It actually was a little worse this time. A boy went to order and immediately began shouting about how he had seen him on TV. This kid looked like he was seven years old- that had been a pretty raunchy channel- why were his parents letting him watch this stuff?! He had to grit his teeth and bare the awful freak out the child had. The entire time he was in the shop he was staring at him. (And **this** was why he didn't want to be on television.)

When he finished work he had to clean up again. It started to rain outside as he and Bubbles shut the place down for the night. Just what he needed; to arrive at his second job completely soaked.

He used his apron as a sort of shawl to at least keep most of his shirt dry, but his hair? Completely drenched. He had to use the hand dryer in the restroom to make it somewhat decent.

The club was less packed tonight, probably because of the rain, but Jack wasn't complaining. He just relaxed while the music slowly made him go deaf.

He had to clean up vomit that night. He had to drag out the mop and clear the floor. He hadn't even been servicing that are of the club, no one else was moving to do it. At first Jack thought it was really rude, but then he remembered that not everyone was as sweet or thoughtful as Pitch. Jack smiled when he caught himself thinking that.

When he finally got out of work it was pouring. Buckets upon buckets of water poured down from the sky. And he had to walk home in this. Groaning, Jack used his apron as a shawl again and began the trek through puddles back to his apartment door. He tossed every article of clothing to the floor once he got back- and slept in his birthday suit.


	16. Boysenberry

_I'm listening to the Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack! And swaying my head with Jack's sadness._

___Guest Who Did Not Sign In: You request action? But... but this is supposed to be a fluffy fluf fluff. *cries* All the snuggles and cuddles!_

**Just Eat The Ice Cream – Chapter Fifteen: Boysenberry**

Jack's phone was what woke him. Two hours before his alarm clock. Groaning, he grabbed the damn thing and clicked the answer button. "Hello?"

"Congratulations, your application for a shopping spree has just-"

Jack hung up. A telemarketer? Really? _That_ was what woke him up? Not even a month of having a phone and he was getting calls from telemarketers? He wailed unhappily and flopped his head back down, returning to sleep until woken by his actual alarm.

When he got up, he wondered at first why he was naked. But when he found the still wet pile of clothes he remembered the rain and groaned. He hung them up in the shower and got dressed for the day.

The rain started again after he arrived at the shop. It stopped after an hour or so, but it made for quite the terrifying mess during the course of the day. Bubbles _volunteered_ to man the cash register so that she wouldn't have to keep cleaning the mud streaks all over the floor. Jack just kept mopping and mopping over and over again. He had set out a towel for a mat for shoe wiping, but it didn't help much after the first few people walked over it. He didn't even want to look at the side of the counter.

As he bent to wipe away a large line of muck, Jack yelped, feeling something shove itself into the backs of his legs. Turning his head, he relaxed immediately seeing Seraphina hugging him. He raised his eyes, finding Pitch just walking in. (He _pretended_ not to notice the way the man gasped, blinked, and blushed at how his daughter had caught him. Butt stuck straight in the air.)

Hesitantly Pitch bent and pulled his daughter away from Jack. He stood straight, smiling at the two of them. "Hi stranger," he said, smiling at Pitch. "Did you two come for ice cream again?"

"Actually no," Pitch said, pulling Seraphina back to his side, "We were heading to the book store. But Sera recognized the street we were on and I couldn't catch up to her before she grabbed you…" Pitch gave her a stern look, to which she pouted, but Jack only smiled.

"Well it was nice to see you anyway," he said, fully prepared to go back to cleaning- a little kid had just run inside, shoes caked in gunk.

But he didn't get to, Seraphina jumped forward, standing on her tippy toes, and said, "We're having another movie night!"

"Oh… Um… Okay…" Jack didn't exactly know what to say.

"And we're making pasketti, too!"

Jack looked to Pitch. "Spaghetti," he clarified.

"Oh," Jack said, looking back down at the excited girl.

"Can you come?" she asked, eyes wide and eager, "Can you? Can you?"

"Sera," Pitch quickly scolded, "Don't force him. Jack has work, too."

Smiling, Jack said, "Well, actually, I can't get off today," Sera's face fell immediately, "But," he said, making her lift her head again, "I have off in three days, so if you guys could save the spaghetti and movie night for me, I'd definitely come then!"

Gasping happily, Seraphina looked to her father. Sighing with a smile, Pitch said, "Okay. Movie night is moved to Saturday…" And she squealed and hugged him around his legs. Jack laughed at how absolutely adorable she was.

"Will I see you guys before then?" he asked.

Pitch rolled his shoulders. "Ah… Maybe me," he said, "Sera _does_ have dance tomorrow… And I might have some time between appointments…"

"Good," Jack said, smiling, "I expect to see you here." Pitch blinked at him, and Jack just smiled, sticking out his tongue. The man shook his head and said goodbye, taking his overly excited daughter with him.

That left Jack with the task of cleaning the shop. The counter had smudges and streaks of mud and dirt and all sorts of grossness. Why did children have to kick the counter? Why?

The club was rather dull. Jack happily danced to the music, but mostly just went into his normal circles. Table, bar, table, bar, table, bar. It was a very repetitive cycle. He was back in the hum drum of his life.

He got back to his apartment, cleaned up his now dry clothes, and went to sleep. His morning went like this- Jack's alarm went off, Jack went to turn it off, Jack fell off his bed, Jack cursed loudly, Jack hit his alarm clock, Jack _broke_ his alarm clock, and Jack cursed again. He didn't want to have to buy a new one, but it looked like he'd have to.

When he got to the shop, he was able to return to his normal post at the register. It was nice to not have to go in circles mopping up places you had just cleaned. As he worked, Jack was expecting Pitch to come in at some point. He was waiting for it, actually. Imagine his surprise when Nick showed up.

"Nick!" he greeted him excitedly, "Been a while since you've been by!" Nick smiled brightly at him and ordered himself some ice cream. Jack took this time to take his break, seeing as how Pitch hadn't shown up yet.

The two sat and chatted for a while. Jack told Nick about how his clock had broken, to which Nick laughed, and Nick told him about how Manny's new book was coming to the market in a few days. Jack was excited to hear that, he wanted to see what the bald man could come up with.

Bubbles shouted his name at this point. Sighing, Jack went and walked back to the counter. And as he walked, the door opened. It was Pitch. Jack inhaled a little, smiled, and said hello. Nick greeted him as well. Jack went toward Pitch, but was immediately yelled at by Bubbles.

Flinching, Jack glared at her, but turned back to Pitch. "Pitch, I'm sorry. I already took my break. Nick showed up, and I didn't know when you would. I have to get back to work," he said, rather quickly. He felt bad. He saw Pitch's face fall when he said that he had taken his break already. "I'm sorry…"

Pitch gave him a soft smile. "It's okay," he said, "I'll just sit with Nick." Jack felt like it wasn't exactly okay, but Pitch still smiled at him. Maybe it was okay? Pitch bought himself a bottled water and sat with his old friend. Jack watched the two of them from the counter in sadness.

He wished he hadn't taken his break already. He wanted to talk with Pitch. He had been expecting him all morning. His stomach was rolling he was so distraught about it. It would've been mean of him to not sit and chat with Nick, but he really had wanted to sit and talk with Pitch.

Kids kept coming in, Jack had to keep giving out those dreaded vanillas, and Jack kept frowning. He glanced over at the table which held his two friends, sad that he couldn't join them in their conversation. It sure looked like Nick was having a good time, laughing and snickering. Pitch would smile every time he told a joke. Jack wished he could hear one.

After while he gave up. He told- not asked, **told**- Bubbles he was going on another break. Jack sat himself down with them. They both looked a little surprised that he came over. "What about your break?" Pitch asked.

"I wanted to come talk to you guys," Jack said. Both of his older friends smiled at him. They all sat and Nick told Jack a story about one of his neighbors. Apparently they had bought a new puppy and it had ripped their curtains apart. "Did they tell you?" he asked.

Nick laughed. "No," he said, "I saw curtains and heard story from other neighbor." Jack and Pitch each shook their heads at the gossiper.

Eventually Nick had to leave. The two of them said goodbye and that left just Jack and Pitch.

Smiling at his black haired friend, Jack asked, "How's Sera's class going?"

"Good, good," Pitch replied, sipping his water, "They're starting to learn the dance of the Snowflakes…" Jack smiled at that. And then… silence… Really awkward silence… That had never actually happened before between the two of them. Every time things had gotten quiet it had felt normal. This felt… tense… Had something happened while Jack was at the counter?

Looking down at his fingers, Jack swallowed nervously. This was… really uncomfortable. He had no idea how to break the silence. Swallowing again, he lifted his head to look at Pitch. Was it him or had Pitch's eyes quickly flicked away like he had just been looking at him just then?

Exhaling in a low whistle, Jack tapped his fingers on the tabletop. He smiled, laughing nervously. "So much for talking," he said.

Pitch smiled at that. "Yeah…" he sighed.

"…So…" Jack tried to ease away the quiet, "This movie night… Are we just going to be watching Little Mermaid again…?"

And just like that- boom- tension completely gone. Pitch's shoulders relaxed visibly and he smiled a little wider. Damn, Jack was good. "Most likely," he replied, "We have others, but that's the one we watch over and over again."

Jack smiled. "That's okay, I like that movie."

Smiling some more, Pitch said, swirling the water around, "Sera's really looking forward to this movie night. She's got a list up in her room of what she has planned for the night. Won't let me look at it. Every time I ask she tells me it'll ruin her plans," he said. Jack chuckled warmly at that. "She even sleeps with the notebook it's in."

"Wow," Jack said, "Girl's determined to keep it a secret." Pitch nodded. "Well, I'm looking forward to it, too. I'm sure whatever we do will be fun."

"I sure hope so…"

_The movie night is going to be FULL of fluff. I warn you now._


	17. Raspberry Cheesecake

_I really should be getting to sleep right now, but I've got inspiration. AND I REFUSE TO LOSE IT._

_Guest Who Did Not Sign In: Nah, you didn't upset me. I was messing with you. It was just... I understand your request, but I had the next two chapters already typed up and putting in action wouldn't work well. I'll see if I can add more action later, though, okay?_

**Just Eat The Ice Cream – Chapter Sixteen: Raspberry Cheesecake (Yes. I've seen that.)**

The Saturday night finally came. Jack was actually extremely excited. Before he came over, he got a call from Pitch. (He gave him his number.)

"Sera says you need to wear a brown shirt," he told him. When Jack asked why, he heard her little voice in the background yelling, "The list! Follow the list!"

So, he went home and found a brown shirt. He knocked on the door and it was answered by Sera, who was wearing a white shirt, black pants, and a black vest that was obviously her father's. She had a fake mustache drawn on her face and she greeted him by bowing and saying, "Evening ice cream man." Jack wanted to hug her to death it was so precious. And when he came in and saw the look on Pitch's face, it was obvious he did too.

Sera grabbed Jack's hand and dragged him to the living room. She sat him down in front of the couch, behind the coffee table, where a plate of steaming spaghetti was already sitting. It had two meatballs and a heap of red sauce on it. There were two other plates set out, and Sera dragged Pitch down to sit as well. Obviously the middles pot was for her. They both looked to their 'waiter' expectantly.

Smiling, Sera said, "Bone Apple treat." Jack couldn't hold back the coo that escaped his lips. That- that was too much. He needed to hug her. When she came to sit he did just that. She giggled as he did and then giggled some more as her father hugged her too.

She picked up the remote and hit the play button. Jack looked to Pitch at this point, but he just shrugged. The logo played on the screen and both men wondered if they were allowed to eat yet. Sera told them to wait until the movie started. Jack was expecting to see the fishy tails of mer-people.

Instead, he saw… Dogs…? He looked at Pitch again. He looked just as surprised. And then the title of the movie showed up. "Lady and the Tramp"

"Now we can eat!" Sera announced, wiping off her mustache and grabbing her fork.

Jack couldn't help but laugh. She had planned a themed dinner for their movie night. That was what the list was all about- she wanted to surprise them with a themed night. Jack looked at Pitch, who was smiling down at his daughter. He gave Jack a smile as well; evidently they both realized it at the exact same moment.

Still chuckling, Jack picked up his fork and began twirling his pasta. Sera saw and tried to do the same. Pitch helped show her, getting up and grabbing a spoon for her to use to help. He pressed the end of her fork to the spoon and used it as her base to twirl the pasta. She caught on quick and soon was doing it all by herself.

"This is really good," Jack said at one point, lifting his head and looking at Pitch. Pitch smiled at him and swallowed before thanking him.

"I helped daddy make the meatballs!" Seraphina chimed. Smiling, Jack cut into one and tried it.

"They're fantastic!" he said. She giggled and went back to her food. They ate as the movie went along. They paused whenever they were more interested in the events on the television, but ate whenever they remembered they were hungry.

It was the famous pasta scene now. And Seraphina quickly lifted her plate, to roll one of her meatballs onto her father's plate. Pitch gave her his, and Jack passed his over to Pitch. It was actually very cute. She smiled brightly and said, "Now we all shared! Just like in the movie!" Pitch ruffled her hair with a smile.

Jack looked at Pitch at one point during the pasta scene. It was right when the dogs were sharing the single thread of spaghetti. Pitch had been looking at the screen up until this point. But Jack quickly saw his eyes drift to him. Jack gave him a little smile, and Pitch seemed to realize that Jack was looking back. He quickly looked away.

Still smiling, Jack twirled a little more of his pasta onto his fork. Pitch had to like him- he was sending him all the signs. Apparently Sera really had been right about him being shy. (He honestly didn't seem it in normal conversation, though.) Jack just couldn't figure him out.

And just like that the romantic scene in the movie was over. The dogs were fighting, shouting at each other after one was denounced as a cheater, and that killed the moment.

When it got to the end of the film and the puppies were on screen, Sera immediately began asking her father if they could get a puppy. He said no.

She then flopped onto Jack's chest, gave him puppy dog eyes and asked, "Can I get a puppy ice cream man?"

Jack wanted to say yes, just to make her smile and see Pitch pout unhappily. But he thought better of it and said, "Your daddy would have to buy it, not me. It's still up to him…" She responded with an unhappy 'humph' and crossed her arms over her chest.

Pitch looked at his daughter, gently stroking the top of her head, and said he was sorry they couldn't get a puppy right now. Her response had been, "So we might get one later?"

Jack was chortling behind his hand as Pitch replied, "We'll see, sweetheart…"

She didn't look entirely happy after that, so Jack suggested, "Hey, how 'bout we finish off that secret list you wrote?" She smiled at that and hopped to her feet, grabbing them and making them stand as well.

After cleaning up dishes together the little girl had them all get to work emptying out several boxes of their stuff. Once a large pile had been fixed, they opened them and began taping them into a little house. Jack felt like he had seen someone do this is a TV show before. But it was cute. They all drew pictures on the sides with some of her crayons. Jack drew a snowman, Pitch drew a black cat, and Sera drew the three of them standing in front of a yellow house surrounded by flowers. (Girl drew **fast**.)

She announced that this was her clubhouse and crawled inside. Jack and Pitch looked at each other while they sat outside waiting to see what she'd do. They basically exchanged looks of 'I honestly have no idea'.

When she determined it was okay, Seraphina allowed them to come into her clubhouse and Pitch began telling a story. Oddly enough, she didn't fall asleep. Instead, she listened the entire time, sitting in Jack's lap. He finished the dramatic tale and she immediately asked if they could make brownies.

As her father said yes she rushed out of the clubhouse. "She sure has a lot of energy tonight," Jack said, not sure if he should leave before Pitch.

The space man motioned for him to go ahead, saying, "It's probably just the fact that you're here. She must think it's another sleepover…" Jack managed to squeeze out of the tiny door they cut into the clubhouse, falling onto the floor and rolling a little to his left.

"You okay?" Pitch asked, crawling out behind him. Jack nodded slowly, rubbing his elbow, which now had a little bit of rug burn, and sat up.

"Just a tight fit," he grumbled, prepared to stand up. Pitch gave him a hand in doing so- putting a supporting hand on his shoulder and lifting his left elbow to help take the weight off Jack's feet. Jack definitely appreciated the help.

Sera was already setting out bowls and spoons on the counter to make the chocolate treat. Pitch got eggs, Jack got oil, and Sera grabbed the cooking chocolate from in the cupboards. Jack noticed that it was unsweetened- did Pitch eat chocolate if it had no sugary taste? He didn't know.

Pitch pulled a stool over for Sera to stand on and the three of them got to work making homemade brownies. Jack made a mental note to steal their recipe. He had to melt the chocolate in the microwave, along with butter, and had to stir it every now and then to make sure it was actually melting and not just burning. When he finished he poured it into the bowl full of sugar.

It took a while to mix everything together, but once the brownies were in the oven, Sera let Jack lick the bowl with her. He was surprised by how sweet it was. (He had snuck a taste of the melted chocolate and had gagged at the bitterness.) They shared the batter peacefully. Seraphina offered the spoon to her father, who took just a little bit off onto his finger, and then returned it to his daughter.

"You won't even have brownie mix? That's like one of the rights of passage when making brownies!" Jack said, looking up at him.

Pitch rolled his eyes. "I'm saving my appetite for the actual brownies," he said, "I wouldn't be able to stand so much sugar all at once."

"Then clearly we are not of the same race," Jack said, grinning, "I don't know what planet you come from Pitch, but here on Earth, we like sugar." Sera quickly added in a 'yeah!' Pitch frowned at him.

"But, I've actually known you were some kind of alien since I first met you," he said, rolling his hand in circles, smirking. Pitch gave him a slightly curious, slightly sarcastic look as Jack continued. "No one ever uses the tip jar at work," he said, "They see it sitting there on the counter and they just ignore it. And then when I fell down, instead of _laughing_ like every _normal_ person in the shop did, you helped me get back up. And to top it all off you let me use your phone to call for help." Jack gave him a confident smirk and said, "Thus, the first day, you proved that you were an alien. Now it's just confirming it."

Sighing, letting his previously crossed arms fall to his side, Pitch asked, "Will you stop that? All the stupid is giving me a headache." Jack stuck his tongue out at him in response. Pitch smiled back.

He picked up his daughter and carried her out to the living room. Jack followed behind them with a smile. They all sat on the couch and turned on the TV. Pitch played pre-recorded re-runs of Power Puff Girls. Probably was a good thing. All the cartoons Jack had seen recently were pretty sketchy, even bordering on risqué at certain points.

The three of them sat and watched together for a while. Jack smiled when he noticed that Pitch was absently stroking his daughter's hair. It was really quite precious to see such a close knit family. Weird, considering not long ago Sera was keeping an entire night secret from her father.

After a while he reached his hand out and took hold of Pitch's. The black haired man blinked and turned his head to look at him. Smiling, Jack set his hand down on Sera's shoulder, instead of continuously running through her hair. Pitch smiled softly after that and allowed Jack to rest his arm over his and set his own hand onto Sera's opposite shoulder. The three sat like that, watching their show together.

When the oven beeped Pitch had to slide his arm free and go get their dessert. Sera began bouncing on the couch, asking if she could have a brownie yet. Jack had to tell her to wait until her father got back to ask. As soon as Pitch came around the corner she was bombarding him with the same question.

"Not yet Sera," he replied, "They need to cool off before you can eat them." She pouted about it, but a rub to the head from Jack had her smiling again. Pitch came back to the couch smiling as well. His hand first went to stroke Sera's hair again, but it stopped just above her head. He looked over at Jack for a brief moment, smiled sheepishly, and set his hand on her shoulder instead. Jack looped his arm back over his again, and they watched the ending of the episode quietly.

Jack was surprised by how good the brownies were. As he sat and chewed, he said to the tall man sitting a little ways to his left, "I'm so stealing your recipe." Pitch only laughed.


	18. Lemon (NO Not what you think)

_There are little kids outside my house screaming. I don't know what to do…_

**Just Eat The Ice Cream – Chapter Seventeen: Lemon**

Had Jack been planning on sleeping over? No. Did he end up falling asleep on the couch, head nestled against Pitch's chest right beside Sera's as Pitch told a story? Yes. Yes he had. That did not mean he planned it, though.

He woke up; blinking his sleepy eyes, smiling at Seraphina's sleeping face right in front of his. She looked so peaceful. As he lay there, smiling at how precious she was, Jack began to become aware of the heartbeat he could hear in his right ear. He let his eyes fall shut as he listened to the soft thrumming. Pitch couldn't be an alien if he had a heart, right?

Jack rubbed his face into Pitch's chest, nuzzling closer, though he could get no closer, and sighing happily. He heard Pitch let out a gentle groan at the movement- he even felt the vibrations in his cheek. (It tickled.)

Lifting his face, he looked up at Pitch as he woke up. The moment his amber eyes blinked open the first time, Jack said teasingly, "Morning Snow White." Pitch quickly frowned at him for that.

He yawned, though. Stretching a little beneath the two smaller bodies, Pitch grumbled, "It's too early to insult you back…" Jack grinned with victory. How early was it? He looked over at the clock and blinked in surprise. It wasn't even six a.m. How had he woken up so early? He never did that on his own. He always needed some sort of alarm.

Jack felt Pitch stretch again. "Alright…" he groaned, "Now get off me. I gotta take Sera up to bed…" Jack pouted but did as he said, lifting himself up and rolling off the couch and halfway across the floor. Pitch just shook his head at him and stood with his daughter in his arms. "I have no words for you," he said, walking up the stairs.

Jack frowned at his retreating form. He stretched out on the rug, yawning with the effort of waking up early, and then proceeded to do nothing. He didn't feel like actually getting up. He felt like lying on the floor. The floor was nice. It smelled like flowers.

He heard Pitch come back down the stairs. The man looked over at him. "You alright?" he asked, watching as Jack stretched again.

"Mm, yup," Jack replied, smiling and curling into a ball on the rug, "Your floor is comfy." He heard Pitch sigh at him for that. He heard him walk off somewhere else. A short while after that, he heard his footsteps coming back.

Pitch set a hand on Jack's side. "Get up," he said, "I'm making you coffee." Jack smiled and blinked open his blue eyes.

"With cream and sugar?" he asked, trying to put on his cutest face. Pitch smirked and rolled his eyes at him, muttering a quiet 'yes' before walking back to the kitchen. Jack sat right up after that. Coffee was a great motivator for him to get his butt in gear.

He poked his head around into the kitchen, finding Pitch leaning against a counter with a tired look on his face. "You feelin' alright buddy?" he asked, walking into the room.

Pitch tried to give him a convincing smile, but it didn't last. He placed a hand over his stomach and mumbled about not feeling well. "Need me to call a doctor?" Jack asked, moving to place a hand on his back for support in case he needed it.

Pitch shook his head no. "Just need something to settle my stomach," he said. Jack wasn't entirely convinced. When the coffee was ready Jack didn't let Pitch go to the machine to get it, he made him stay against the counter and got it for him, along with two mugs. He poured some for Pitch first, then for himself. He watched Pitch take a sip.

After a few minutes he seemed alright. He didn't look quite as deathly pale. "What upset your stomach?" he asked, swallowing some more of his sweetened caffeine.

"Probably the sweets," Pitch replied, "This is why I don't enjoy them. They don't always agree with me…" Jack nodded in understanding and drank a little more.

After a little while of just drinking together, Jack said, "Last night was fun. Tell Seraphina she should plan more of our evenings." Pitch gave him a soft smile for that and said he would. "She'd make a great caterer." Now Pitch laughed. Jack liked making him laugh.

"Sorry I fell asleep on you," he said after a moment of quiet.

Pitch smiled and shrugged his shoulders. "It's not a problem," he said, "Sera already did, so I wouldn't expect you to last much longer. We all had a heavy dinner." Jack nodded his head slowly.

Smiling again, the teen said, "If it's any consolation, you were one of the comfiest pillows I've ever had." Pitch blushed lightly at that, pouting at him, but that only made Jack laugh. No wonder Sera's upset face was so cute- she got it from her father.

After a while Jack had to leave. He didn't want to, he'd much rather spend the whole day sitting and talking with Pitch or playing with Sera, but he had to pay for that apartment. He thanked Pitch for the dinner and the coffee and went back to change his clothes.

At work another kid recognized him as the man on TV. He wanted to gouge his own face off so that no one would ever recognize him again. That stupid show. He really just hoped no one from the club would recognize him and start asking him about getting on TV for themselves.

Jack's mind wandered during the slow point of the day. He started daydreaming. About riding a horse made of clouds. An odd thing to daydream about, no?

He ended up having to take his break so that he could clear his head. He couldn't work if all he was thinking about were cloud ponies. Maybe if it were ice cream ponies, because then it at least related to work, but not cloud ones.

Sandy texted him while he was on break. Apparently he had been promoted to assistant store layout manager at the mall. Jack was happy for him. He didn't think he physically could get promoted to anything other than ice cream truck driver where he worked.

He spent most of his ten minutes texting his friend. Sandy was doing pretty well for himself. Not only had he been promoted, but he said he found a girl who seemed really into him that worked just a few sections away from him. Jack hoped they'd hook up. Sandy was a sweety- he'd definitely make any girl happy.

After work Jack walked down to the bookstore. His eyes lit up when he saw a book written by a Manny Moon. He hurried inside to buy a copy. And he was not ashamed to take it to the club and put it out in the open with his stuff. Sure his co-workers mocked him for it, but that didn't matter in the slightest to Jack. He just went about his business.

The circles were back. Oh, wonderful wonderful. Jack walked around and around wondering why he didn't just give up and become a homeless person. And he decided that it was because he'd be too afraid of getting mugged.

When he finished it was basically four in the morning. He took some paper from in the club, wrapped the book in it, tied it shut with thread, and taped a little note to it. Smiling, He went to Pitch's house and set the book on the front steps. He hoped Sera would like it as much as he had.

After that it was officially nap time. Jack slept like a baby at his apartment. And he slept until his phone woke him.

Growling under his breath, Jack hissed, "I swear if this is another telemarketer I'm getting rid of this phone…" He answered it with a dull, tired, "Hello?"

"Hi Jack," he was surprised to hear Pitch's voice on the other end. He lifted himself up a little to listen to him. "Sorry if I woke you. Sera wanted me to call you and let you know that she really liked the present you left for her. She's already read through it twice."

Jack smiled, proud of himself, and said, "Tell her she's very welcome. I knew she'd like it." They talked for a little while longer before Jack hung up and let his head flop back down onto his bed. He needed sleep. Even if just another hour.

The teen went to work that day feeling drained. He wished he had gotten a little more sleep- he could've used it. Bubbles was out again, apparently for the rest of the week, and Bella was back. Jack was actually pretty happy about it. He got to take a nap for two hours while she manned the register. And boy did it help.

Jack learned pretty quickly that Bella was a bit of a klutz. She fell on top of him during their shift- twice! (As if nearly killing him with ice hadn't been bad enough.) He just had to groan and get back up.

It was times like these that Jack wished he could spend his day in a padded room.


	19. Panda Paws

_I have tried writing a kiss between Jack and Pitch 3 times now. THREE! None have fit..._

**Just Eat The Ice Cream – Chapter Eighteen: Panda Paws**

It wasn't that Jack liked Bubbles in any way; it was just that Jack didn't enjoy getting hurt. Bella had been with him for two days and he already had a bruise on his back, his chest, his leg, and now he was pretty sure he had a black eye! All in two days!

Rubbing ice against his face, Jack grumbled, "If this keeps up, I'm gonna have to call in for disability…" He was being allowed to sit and ice his eye at the club for a little while before he had to start. His boss thought he had been mugged and, though Jack tried to explain, refused to believe anything different. He was okay with the sympathy if it meant he got to tend to his hurt.

He actually wasn't treated like shit by his co-workers, either. They felt bad for him, especially when he lifted the bag of ice from his face to show them the ugly red and purple flower spreading over his left eye.

Jack hoped to keep the bruise a secret from his friends for as long as possible. He knew Tina would freak out, at least- Nick might have just insisted he _wear_ an ice pack. Sandy would probably be most understanding, and Eric would tell him to suck it up and be proud about it. Pitch would probably try to help, too. Sera might try to touch it. Just touching it now hurt!

After half an hour, Jack figured the worst thing that would happen while he was on the job would be that his customers would think he really _had_ gotten mugged and would give him bigger tips for working anyway. He liked the idea of more money. Money was nice.

He worked for a while and nearly spit out a sip of water he had taken when he saw Nick come into the club. (He choked on it instead.) He didn't want to go and see him, knowing they'd only talk about his shiner, but it was pretty damn obvious the old coot was looking for him. He was going up to each waiter, turning them around, and walking away when it wasn't who he wanted.

Sheepishly, Jack approached him. "Hey Nick," he said in as quiet a voice as possible.

But the man heard him. Nick turned around, prepared to hug him roughly like always, and stopped dead seeing his face. "What happened to you?" he asked, pointing at his eye as if Jack didn't know he looked ugly.

"Bella…" he replied. When Nick didn't look like he understood, Jack sighed and said, "Bubbles' replacement for the week… She was trying to get the scoop un-stuck from the barrel of hard vanilla, had called me over, and got it unlodged right when I was behind her… Elbow got me right in the eye."

Nick made a sympathetic face. You know, that one where they scrunch up their nose, bite their lower lip, and go "Vvvfffttt…"

"Sorry to hear that," he said.

"It's okay," Jack mumbled in response.

"Does it hurt?" Nick asked, looking at it from a different angle.

Nodding, Jack replied, "Loads. But it's better now that I iced it. So, why're you here?"

"Ah, yes," Nick said, suddenly remembering, "I am here on blind date set up by Tina. She thinks I need get out more. Do you know which table is table thirteen?" Laughing lightly, Jack pointed to the table far to his right, near the bar's end.

Jack had wondered why the woman sitting there had been sitting alone and drinking water. Nick patted his shoulder happily as he left. Jack wasn't entirely sure they'd hit it off, the woman hadn't seemed all too cheerful. So then… Nick had been with a woman before? Jack speculated the odds each time he glanced over at the two, seeing if they had any chemistry at all. So far, it seemed like Nick wasn't even noticing her boobs.

At the end of the night, Jack was cleaning off a table. Nick came over to him and whispered in his ear, "Is no dice, Jack," he squinted his eyes at his date, which was leaving, "Old bat is nothing but floozy." Jack couldn't hold back the guffaw at that statement.

He watched Nick head out with a smile.

Now, he had definitely had black eyes in the past before. But none of them had ever hurt quite as bad as this one did. It was his second day of having it and it hurt worse than the first night. His face felt swollen, his eye watered, and it constantly felt like it was pulsating. Not to mention the constant headache it gave him on the left side.

Nobody recognized him as the man from the show with this thing on his face. Bella apologized even more when he came in with it. He told her it was okay, just not to do it to his other eye. (Or any part of his body for that matter.)

But, once more, Jack got unlucky. As he was mopping, Bella had the misfortune to walk through a slick spot, knock into him, and knock him to the floor, where his arm hit the side of a chair. He groaned in pain and got up carefully. She was already spewing apologies, but Jack told her it was no big deal. He went to the back room and gathered some ice into a plastic bag. He then wrapped it in paper towels and took himself a break.

He sat at one table near the windows and held the ice pack to his sore arm. Grumbling unhappily at everyone that walked in and didn't trip on the wet floor, Jack felt like a real Scrooge. At least when it was Bubbles he didn't have to worry about death coming at every corner!

After a while he laid his arm across the table, on top of the ice pack, and massaged his left temple, trying to soothe the pain from his black eye. "Too many injuries, not enough ice packs…"

And then Jack heard a gasp. Opening his eyes, Jack just caught the blur of black hair as Seraphina ran to hug him. "Mister ice cream man!" she said, sounding breathless and scared, "What happened to your eye?!"

Jack gave her a small smile, and then another to Pitch, who was looking at him with concern as well. "Hey guys," he said, still rubbing his head.

Pitch came over, lifted Sera off Jack's legs and into his lap, and sat at the chair next to him. "What happened?" he asked, eyes overflowing with concern.

Jack motioned over to Bella, who once again had the scoop for the ice cream stuck. "That," he grumbled, "That exact situation is what happened." Pitch looked and didn't seem to understand. "I tried to help and she accidentally hit me in the face with her elbow…"

Sera made the same face Nick had made the other night. "Does it need kisses to make it better?" she asked. Jack couldn't help but smile at that.

"Nah, I think it just needs ice," he replied, holding his head unhappily.

Pouting, she asked, "Are you sure? Whenever I get a boo-boo daddy's kisses are the only thing that makes it feel better."

Jack smiled wider. "But Pitch isn't my daddy," he said, "Does it work the same if he isn't my dad? Is there still magic daddy power?" Pitch rolled his eyes at that, but Sera seemed to be seriously thinking that over.

"I think so," she said, "It's still a boo-boo. And it's still a kiss from _a_ daddy. So it should help you feel better."

Smirking, Jack raised his gaze to Pitch. "Wanna give it a try, Pitch?" the man frowned unhappily at him, cheeks dusting over a light pink.

It didn't seem like Jack was going to convince him. Lucky for the teen, Seraphina spoke up. "Yeah, daddy! Try it! See if it makes ice cream man feel better!"

Pitch sighed. "He has a name, Sera," he said. Jack only continued smirking. Groaning, Pitch gave up. "Very well," he said, moving Sera a little so he could actually get to Jack, "You'd better not laugh at this."

"Cross my heart I won't," Jack said, closing his eyes. He waited with a smile until he felt a feather light kiss against his swollen, burning eye. Then a second. And a third. He sighed as the cool lips danced over the heated, ugly, maroon flesh. It felt really nice.

Finally the kisses stopped. He opened his eyes and looked at the two aliens. "Better?" Sera asked, looking anxious. Jack nodded. She jumped in her dad's lap. "Haha! I was right!" she said proudly.

Jack gave Pitch a smile, but the man was too busy staring as hard as he could at the wall to notice. Jack couldn't help but laugh at least a little at that.

"You know," he said, forcing his attention back, "I _did_ just hurt my arm a little while ago-"

"No." Jack laughed at the shade of red Pitch's cheeks were now.

"Awww, why not? It actually made me feel better!" he whined, Sera giggling the whole time, "You're just keeping all the magic, healing kisses to yourself!" Pitch scowled at him for that. (A lot less intimidating with his cheeks being as red as they were.)

Looking away again, Pitch hissed, "I don't even understand why I talk to you."

"Because you can't resist my charisma and charm," Jack teased back, winking his good eye closed and sticking his tongue out. Pitch scowled at him again.

"Did you come for an ice cream or what?" Jack asked after all the teasing had died down and Pitch's cheeks were their normal pale hue. Sera bounced excitedly and hurried over to the counter. Jack stayed at the table. He'd let Bella handle this.

"You want anything?" Pitch asked him, sounding almost like he really cared, but mostly sounding like he was planning on dropping the cone to the floor if he said yes.

"Could you get me some strawberry?" he asked, "The tiniest size we have. In a bowl." Pitch nodded and went up. Jack didn't actually expect him to come back with a little plastic bowl of pink, fruity ice cream. But he was happy that he did.

"Thanks," he said, not hiding how surprised he was with his voice.

Sera asked what flavor he got. When he told her she beamed. "I like that kind!" she squeaked, "I got chocolate with brownie bits!"

Jack smiled. "You sure do like your brownies." She grinned up at him, and Jack had to cover his mouth not to laugh at the adorable, huge chocolate beard on her chin. Pitch caught the hidden laugh and quickly looked at his daughter. He sighed with a smile and wiped her clean.

After sitting and eating with them for a while, Jack figured he'd better head back up. He lifted his ice pack to his eye for a minute beforehand, though. Pitch smiled at him. "Need another boo-boo kiss?" he asked.

"It'd be nice," Jack replied, smiling.

Pitch stood. "Well then I guess the rest of your evening will have to be satisfactory," he said. Jack stuck his tongue out at him and called him a big jerk as they left.

Jack didn't get it. If it were him and he were given the chance to kiss his romantic interest all he wanted he'd take it and make-out with them as hard as he could. Just to convince them to see him in the bedroom light.


	20. Caramel Swirl

**Just Eat The Ice Cream – Chapter Nineteen: Caramel Swirl (Basically Vanilla with swirls of caramel)**

Jack had tried to keep that black eye hidden for as long as possible. But somehow, _somebody_ told Tina about how _they_ went to the club the other night and talked to Jack about the bruise over his eye.

As she rubbed ointment into his face, Jack swore to kick Nick the next time he saw him. She had taken him to her house after his night shift at the club and was forcibly helping him. Jack had been afraid that her boyfriend would see the wounds and think he was weak and then beat him up worse.

"This'll help the swelling," she said as she rubbed the cream back and forth over his purple skin. "It should also help fight infection."

Jack hardly heard what she said. He was too busy staring in terror as Robin glared from the wall. Apparently he didn't even like when Tina was forcing him into her house. He just plain didn't like him.

"Tina, you don't have to keep babying me," he said, "It'll be fine as long as I keep icing it…" She scoffed at him, muttering sarcastically 'fine' and continued rubbing his eye.

It took a whole thirty minutes for her to finish making his eye sore. And once she was done, she left Jack alone in the room with her terrifying boyfriend to put the supplies away.

"Enjoying this?" Robin hissed.

"Not really," Jack said, rubbing his cheek unhappily, "It hurts worse now…"

"You're all she ever talks about, you know," the man growled. Jack blinked and looked up at him. "Jack's got an apartment now. Jack's got really great teeth. Jack's a sweetheart. Why did he ever move out?" he said angrily. "Can't you just get out of here and stay out?"

Swallowing, Jack said, "L-look… That… That's not my-"

"She's told me where your apartment is," Robin said, "She says she wants to visit you."

And once Tina came back and put a padded eye patch over his eye, Jack hurried out of the house. He didn't go home that night. He was too terrified that he was going to be having a terrifying visitor. He went straight to Pitch's house, pulling the patch off and sticking it into his pocket.

He knocked several times. It took about twelve rapid hits of his knuckles for the tall man to answer. He didn't look too thrilled- he mostly looked drained.

"Hey," he said to him quickly, "Listen, I'm really **really** sorry about this, but I'm a little scared to go home right now."

Pitch blinked and quickly stepped aside for Jack to hop inside. "Why are you afraid to go to your apartment?" he asked.

"Oh, no reason, really," he said, skittering over to the couch and sitting down, "Just… Scared…"

The black haired man slowly slid his feet over to where Jack was. He had the black robe around him again. Looking down at the wide eyed teenager, he asked, "What's scaring you?"

"Uh… People," Jack replied, "People who don't like me."

Pitch sat next to him. "People like who, Jack?" he asked calmly. Jack was shivering. The tall man carefully rested a hand on his shoulder.

Jack looked at Pitch when he touched him. Stilling his jitters, Jack replied, although weakly, "T-Tina's boyfriend knows where I live…"

Blinking again, Pitch asked, "Is he the one who threatened you?" Jack nodded, "Then I can see why you're frightened." Sighing, the tall man said, "Well, it's no problem. You can stay here for the night if you want." He stood up. "The couch is always open and-"

"You're leaving?" Jack asked, fear jumping back to a high level.

"Well, I was going to head back up to bed," Pitch said in reply, looking back at him. Jack's big blue eyes were wet with fear. Sighing, Pitch said, "Jack, look. I don't even know this Robin guy. He doesn't know me. There's no way he could know you're here. You're going to be fine, alright?"

Jack swallowed and looked at him. "I'll close the curtains for you, if that will help," he said, motioning to them. Jack nodded and said it would. Pitch shut them and walked back over to Jack. "I'll go get you a blanket."

The teen waited down on the couch, holding the bottom of his shirt in nervousness. Pitch came back and sighed when he saw that he still hadn't calmed down.

"Okay…" he said softly, "There's physically no way for us to share a bed tonight- I sleep on a twin. How 'bout I stay here with you until you fall asleep…?"

Jack gave him a small smile at the idea. Pitch pushed him to lie down and laid the blanket over him. He sat on the arm of the couch, next to Jack's feet. He smiled a little bit.

All at once Pitch started talking again. He started to tell a story. A beautiful tale about a lonely little snowflake that was sad because none of the other snowflakes looked like him. Jack fell asleep as Pitch said that the snowflake found a tree to sleep on.

He woke when he felt someone ruffling his hair. "Wake up, Jack…" It was Pitch.

Blinking open his eyes and smiling, Jack asked sleepily, "Did it have a happy ending?"

Chuckling, Pitch replied, "The snowflake learned he didn't need to look like the others to be happy. He found a home where the snow never melted and lived happily ever after."

"Hooray," Jack said softly before yawning. Pitch chuckled some more.

"Sleep well?" his tall friend asked, sitting down next to him on the couch, handing him a mug of coffee, pre-made the way Jack liked it.

Nodding and taking a big sip, Jack said, "Yeah. Thanks for dealing with me… Sorry I was so worked up."

Pitch only gave him an understanding smile. "It's okay," he said, "I didn't need to get a good night's sleep anyway." Jack pouted at him. "How's the eye?" Pitch asked.

Jack gently touched it. "It's alright," he said, "Tina was putting tons of ointment on it last night." Pitch smiled. "Didn't work nearly as well as the kisses, though." Now Pitch's smile fell to a scowl and he rolled his eyes.

Nudging his arm, Jack asked, "Could I get another one?"

"No," Pitch replied, nudging right back, making Jack yelp and grab his arm. "Sorry."

"Meanie," Jack whimpered, rubbing his bruised arm. Pitch groaned at him and told him that he was hopeless. Then Jack felt him lift his hand away from his arm and those soft, cool lips press against the bruise. And next Pitch lifted his head and placed a soft kiss to Jack's eye. Jack smiled as he counted out the seconds that it lasted. Twelve… Pitch had pressed his lips to Jack's face for twelve seconds.

The lips left his face. Jack turned toward the older man with a smile. "Thanks," he whispered.

"If you ever tell anyone I'll kill you," Pitch said. Jack laughed openly at that.

Squeezing Pitch's arm, Jack said, "I'm gonna blackmail you into telling me _all_ your secrets!" Pitch rolled his eyes at that and gave Jack a playful push on the chest.

Jack had to leave at that point, though he was nervous about it. His apartment seemed unchanged, though. Maybe he was just being silly.

He went to the shop and dodged a flying container of waffle cones. Bella had tripped and they had gone flying. He caught the tray, but a lot fell out and onto the floor anyway. He looked at the girl and stared in horror. She was a walking death trap!

He tried to avoid her whenever she had anything heavy or metal or sharp in her hands. He was not going to risk getting a limb cut off.

Managing to escape the shop without any serious injury, Jack hurried to the club. About ten minutes after the night started, Nick showed up. Apparently he had another date. This time with a man that Jack honestly found really attractive. He had that George Clooney kind of aged handsome to him. And though Jack was happy Nick seemed excited to meet him, this left Jack even more confused. Was Nick into women or men?!

It killed him all night long. He desperately wanted to know. If he looked over and saw them kissing he was determining that Nick swung for the same team as Jack. Actually, Jack would've been kind of horrified to see his old friend kissing anyone. Especially if it included tongue. It would be as scarring as hearing Tina fucking her boyfriend had been!

Thinking of which, Jack actually couldn't remember the last time he'd been laid. He didn't really feel like he needed it, but it might've been nice. 'Course, he didn't really have time for any of that, did he…? Not with these jobs…

That was okay. Jack could handle being perceived as a lonely, constantly horny teenager. It wasn't true, so it didn't bother him.


	21. Chocolate Chip

**Just Eat The Ice Cream – Chapter Twenty: Chocolate Chip**

Jack had that bruise a full five days later. Five days and it still wasn't gone! Sure, it wasn't as monstrously ugly, but it wasn't gone either! He just wanted his face to look normal again. Bubbles came back after the third day, thank all that is sacred, and Jack no longer had to worry about injury, but she didn't seem to care that his face was half purple. Looks like things were back to normal at the shop, then.

He had stayed up late the other night, watching Lion King by himself. He had made a bag of microwave popcorn and everything. It was really nice. He wasn't going to admit that he had been trying to stay up later than normal to make sure Robin wasn't going to try and attack him while he was sleeping. He wasn't going to admit that, but it basically was what he was doing.

Apparently Nick's second date hadn't worked out either, or his third, or his fourth. Jack was getting tired of seeing him at the club. He felt like one of the nights he was, something was going to happen that was going to scar him for life. At one point he mentioned it to him. "Maybe none of your dates are working out because you're meeting them at a dance club?" He had tried to be discreet about trying to get rid of him.

Jack didn't even think Nick needed to date anyone. He was fun to be around and a great person by himself. Why Tina felt like everyone had to be screwing every night to be happy, Jack would probably never know. Maybe she based it off herself? He shuddered in disgust at that thought.

Currently, Jack was out shopping. He was getting a new shirt for work. And oddly enough, it was pretty difficult. Everything he had found so far had a chest that was way too big and a waist that was almost perfect. Did manufacturers think he was working out on his pecks all the time?

"Geeze…" he grumbled unhappily. He set down the shirt he had. He'd probably have to go to the junior men's department again to find something. Why was it that only adolescents supposedly were lanky?

And of course, he found a shirt that fit him perfectly. So he got his pants from the section appropriate for his age and style, but shirts from the section not appropriate? Jack hated being so thin sometimes.

Jack checked out near Sandy, smiling when his friend waltzed his way over to him. They chatted for a while. Jack didn't understand how he knew sign language when Sandy was doing it, but couldn't actually learn it for himself. It was weird. He asked Sandy what he thought.

"It's because you're stupid," he replied. Jack scowled at him for that.

"So, have you hooked up with that girl?" he asked, smiling, trying to change the subject. Sandy nodded.

"We went on our fifth date the other night," he said, "She's really nice. I'm teaching her sign language as we spend time together."

Jack grinned. "Well, I'm happy for ya, pal," he said, "You definitely deserve a girlfriend." Sandy beamed at him.

After staying and talking for a while longer, Jack determined he should be going. Where he was going, even he wasn't sure yet. He had the night off from the club, maybe he'd go see a movie? No, there was nothing good out right now… He could go home and order pizza, but that seemed kind of early. It was only, what, three? He needed to do something else.

Walking through town, ignoring looks he got for the bruise on his face, Jack scanned random places and shops for something that might interest him. There was a really neat looking stool inside a store that caught his eye. He looked at the bright blue thing. It felt soft and fuzzy. Plus it opened up for a little bit of storage. He bought it.

Still, he had time to kill. Carrying the big plastic bag that for some reason the cashier insisted he get, Jack wandered a little more. He groaned with his boredom. This was one thing he hated about not having work- the _nothing_ to do without it.

He seemed to always have a good time when he was hanging out with friends. Maybe he could go pay somebody a visit. Sandy was still at work, Nick was probably out on another date, and Tina… Well, Jack was choosing to avoid her for the time being. He could go see Eric, but his mom still wasn't keen on him, even if he was just visiting. He could go hang with Pitch- was he even home this early? Probably not. He was probably working.

Jack scowled. Why did everyone he knew have something to do except him? He kicked the sidewalk unhappily.

He ended up heading to Pitch's office anyway. Even if he was working, he could wait for him to get out and then spend the night with him and Sera. He had to set the plastic bag in the chair beside him as he sat in the waiting room. It took a long time before a tiny, gray haired woman waddled out of Pitch's office. She was actually really adorable.

Jack didn't see Pitch come out, so he hopped to his feet with his bag and went to the door. "Knock, knock!" he called, tapping on the door.

The tall man was sitting at his desk. He turned his head and smiled warmly in his direction.

"Hi!" Jack said, walking in and plopping down on the chair he loved so very much. He crossed his legs over each other and smiled brightly.

"Hi," Pitch replied, spinning his chair around to look at him, "Anything you need or did you just decide to drop by?"

"Just stopping in to see you," Jack replied, running his hand along the leather chair.

Pitch chuckled. "Me," he commented, "_and_ the chair." Jack nodded and continued poking at it. Rolling his eyes, the tall man turned back around to his desk and began scribbling down on his papers. Patient forms, probably. Jack didn't mind. He sat back in the chair and watched the room. What had he ever done with that orange stress toy Pitch gave him? He probably lost it. Dang… He really liked that thing.

Jack pursed his lips as he noticed what looked like pencils stuck in the ceiling. "Did you have an argument with your pencil sharpener or something?" he asked.

Pitch looked back at him, looking perplexed. Jack pointed up at them. "Oh," Pitch said, "No, I had a patient today who was doing that to relieve stress." Jack pouted at that.

"So he throws pencils in your ceiling?" he asked, sitting up, "Those could fall and stab someone's eye out, you know."

Grinning, Pitch turned back and straightened a pile of papers. "Well, then it's a good thing you've already lost one."

Scowling at the back of his head, Jack snapped, "That was uncalled for." Pitch only chuckled and set his paperwork down.

Pitch looked back at him. "Oh, and like you wouldn't say something worse if _I_ had a black eye?" he retorted, resting his ankle on the opposite knee.

Crossing his arms over his chest and huffing, Jack replied, "No. Maybe on the first day, but not after a whole week." Pitch rolled his eyes and shook his head.

As Jack thought about it, he and Pitch had known each other for a while now. It was almost fall again. Would he still be able to see him while Sera was in school?

Sighing, the man got to his feet. Jack joined him and they began walking to his car.


	22. Peanut Butter Cup

_Hahaha, yup. I am in fact dancing around the romance. Why? Because Pitch is perfectly shy._

**Just Eat The Ice Cream—Chapter Twenty One: Peanut Butter Cup**

Jack walked into Pitch's house, happily accepting Sea's death hug around his legs. He had grown used to it, and probably would have been sad if he didn't receive it.

"Hiya, Sera," he said, bending forward to rub the top of her head as she hugged him. "How you been?"

"Good!" she replied, beaming up at him. Jack smiled right back. She was too freaking cute.

Finally stepping out of Pitch's way, Jack was quickly dragged by Seraphina to her little box clubhouse. She had decorated it like crazy since the last time. There were pictures all over it. She had circled the two drawings that he and Pitch had made, writing "Daddy's drawing" and "Jack's drawing" above them.

He pointed to one picture that had three people who looked to be standing on a green box. "Who's this?" he asked.

"Us!" she replied, "See, that one with the white hair is you, that one's me, and that one's daddy!"

Jack followed her finger as she pointed to each. "But what's the green thing we're on top of?"

"The couch!" she said, smiling, "We're sitting and watching TV on the couch!" Jack smiled brightly at that.

Looking over to the tall black haired man watching from a little ways away, Jack said, "You've got an artist over here!" Pitch smiled before taking a sip of his tea. Sera dragged Jack's attention back by pointing to a drawing of he and Pitch sitting and watching her dance in her pink tutu. Gosh, she really paid attention to detail. Then she showed him a drawing of an elephant she made, and next to it, a penguin. Adorable.

After a while she let him look inside her clubhouse- there were blankets and pillows and toys in there. "Have you been living in here?" he asked.

"No," Pitch said, "It's just been her little getaway almost every night." Jack smiled back at him.

None of them got to do much of anything besides playing with Sera in her clubhouse that night. Jack had a lot of fun. They pretended it was a mansion and for some reason Jack was the butler. He jokingly called himself Alfred and Pitch, Batman.

But, not all good things last. Sera got hungry. They all had to crawl out of her clubhouse, which Jack was dreading- it was hard enough the first time. Now there were toys and stuff clogging up his exit. Trying to crawl out, Jack could feel the clubhouse catching on his pant belt loops.

"Uhh… Pitch…" he said as quietly as he cold, trying to look behind him to see the man.

"Yeah?"

"Could you hold onto the clubhouse while I try to get out?" he asked, "I think it's caught on my butt…"

There was a moment of nothing happening. Complete, awkward silence. "Okay." Jack sighed when he heard Pitch say that. He waited until Pitch told him to go before trying to yank himself forward.

He ended up falling onto his stomach when he came out. But at least he didn't roll across the floor or rip apart the boxes.

After getting back up, Jack turned around and thanked Pitch for helping him. They went to the kitchen and began working on making some chicken. Jack helped chop up garlic for it- he wasn't good at it, Pitch had to help, but it was actually fun. He didn't cut himself. (Thanks to Pitch.)

As he tried to chop, Pitch said softly, "No, no, stop, you're going to cut your fingers off." Jack paused and let Pitch's hand slide over his to move the knife. He began helping show Jack the safer way to chop.

Jack smiled when he felt Pitch's chest against his back and his other arm wrapped around him, moving his other hand further back so that his fingers were out of harm's way. Snickering to himself, he whispered, "Too bad we're not at a potter's wheel."

He felt Pitch tense and heard him inhale sharply. He grinned up at him over his shoulder. Pitch lowered his gaze. He looked like he wanted to kiss him. Jack let his lips fall from their naughty grin. Pitch really had beautiful eyes… A deep, rich amber color. He couldn't find that color in the forest if he tried.

Sighing softly, Jack was completely willing to let himself get kissed. He even let his eyelids fall halfway.

Instead, Pitch inhaled sharply again and practically jumped away from him. Why was he so shy? He had left it open for him. Pitch walked away from him at that point, going and getting something from another room.

Jack frowned after him.

"Jack…?" Sera spoke. Jack turned to her. "You _do_ like my daddy, don't you?"

Blinking a few times, Jack replied, "Of course I do. He's a really nice guy."

"No," she said, frowning, "Do you _like_ my daddy the way he likes you?" Jack felt his face go hot and his feet go cold. That was quite the bold question.

Swallowing, he replied, "Well, I, um…" She gave him an imploring, pouty look, and he couldn't lie to her. "I.. I think I do," he said, "But he never… he's just…"

"He's shy," she said, "I told you he was shy." Jack nodded. "He's too scared to tell you."

"But he talks to me all the time," he argued.

"No," she said again, "He just talks to you. He likes you. Even not as the ice cream man." Jack smiled at that. It was adorable.

Smiling a little, Jack asked, "Do you want me to date your daddy?"

Sera looked up at him, fiddling with a washcloth in her hands. "You're nice," she said, "You're like another daddy."

"So.. you _do_ want me to date him…"

"I want daddy to stop being so shy," she said, "He likes you. And I like you too."

Jack smiled. He went to say something to her in response to that, but was caught off guard by what she said.

"I really want you to be my mom."


	23. Peppermint

_Urblflurblflurrrrrrrbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb_

**Just Eat The Ice Cream—Chapter Twenty Three: Peppermint**

Jack had been mulling over Sera's words for an entire week. She wanted him to not only date her father, but _marry_ him! Pitch was definitely attractive, and he could definitely see himself spending all his time with the man and his daughter. He practically lived with them anyway. He wouldn't mind marrying Pitch. But how in the heck would he get him to realize that he didn't need to be so shy? He could definitely make the first move. He had had moments where he could have, and he just let them flutter away because he wanted Pitch to do it.

Marrying Pitch… Gosh, Jack just couldn't believe Seraphina wanted him to be her new mother/father/whatever the hell she wanted to call him. He was laying on his bed, staring straight at the wall, trying to think on this. Sera would plan something big and incredible. He needed to make her proud with something just as though out…

He chewed his lip as he tried to imagine ways to get Pitch to realize he liked him. He could just out and kiss him, but that had no planning or thought. He needed to think of something good… Something that would actually make Pitch go "Well, shit."

Running his fingers through his hair, Jack groaned unhappily. He'd need to do something. He actually realized that he really did like Pitch. He was smart, funny, attractive, and a father. He was sweet, loving, fun to be around, reasonable to argue with, understanding, and he always listened to Jack when he whined and complained about nothing. Not only that, but he had the most beautiful amber eyes Jack had ever seen.

"Geeze, when did I become a dating site's description section?" he grumbled to himself, "I must have it bad if I'm sitting here thinking about everything that attracts me to Pitch…"

He would say he needed to get out more, but he didn't need to date. He was already interested in somebody, and they were interested in him. His romantic interest was just too shy to ask him out.

_So apparently everyone wants Pitch to bed Jack? Do you want it to become M rated when they get together, then? Smutty times?_


	24. Cherry

_So, I'm going on vacation next week. Exciting? Yes. Terrifying? Also yes. A whole week without internet. What will I do with myself? Well, I'm not really sure… I'll be heading back to school soon. But I'm pretty sure I'll still be able to update. Heck, I updated all last year, right? Hopefully you won't see me dying once I go back…_

**Just Eat The Ice Cream—Chapter Twenty Four: Cherry**

Jack was sitting behind the counter, huddled in on himself in terror. Guess who was back in the shop? That's right- Bella. He was absolutely terrified that he was going to get another black eye- he had literally just lost the other one! He didn't need any more! How could he think of getting Pitch to like him when he was too busy panicking about getting hurt.

Jack had his stupid ice cream hat pulled down to his ears. He was getting an awesome break, but he didn't dare move from where he was. Bella had been carrying a tub full of ice cream scoops. Heavy metal objects. He wasn't going anywhere until she wasn't holding them anymore. He wasn't losing any toes.

So, he sat and mulled over possible plans for Pitch. He could always stop by his office and confess to him that he had feelings for someone, hint hint, and that he was pretty sure they liked him back. It certainly would get Pitch flustered. But… no… He needed to think bigger than that. Think like Sera, he told himself. Plan an entire meal, evening, and activity. Plan it all. Make it a themed evening. He could trick Pitch into screwing things up and making it obvious he liked him. He could purposely ruin the evening himself so that Pitch would have to do something….

"I could purposely date someone else, make it seem like they broke my heart, and run to him for comfort," he muttered to himself, "It would certainly show him that I look to him for snuggles…"

Bella walked by him and dropped off the tub of scoops into the back room. Sighing, Jack got up and went to lounge on one of the tables. He continued pondering the idea for a while. How could he go about doing this? His relationship with Pitch was definitely tied to Seraphina, so… maybe he could plan something with her?

"Hey Bell," he said, "If you were trying to set up a special date with someone who's got a little kid, what would you do?"

Bella stopped what she was doing and stood and thought. "Well…" she said, "If it were me, I'd have a big date that included their kid. I mean, they probably wouldn't like it if you were interested in them, but not their kid, right?"

Jack pouted. That seemed obvious. "Okay, well, what would you be planning, then? What would you do to include the kid?" he asked.

She frowned. "I think… if it was a girl… I'd ask both of them to a dinner and a princess movie or something… But, like, a dinner of cupcakes." Jack frowned. Cupcakes… He knew right away that wouldn't go over well with Pitch. He didn't want Sera eating tons and tons of sweets.

Actually… That gave him an idea. When he finished work at the club, Jack went to a wire- café and did some online digging. He found instructions on how to make bananas into dogs, oranges into monsters, tomatoes into ladybugs, watermelon into turtles, and so on. He figured, if Pitch doesn't want her eating sweets, he could make healthier food more fun for her. But would that work for a date…? Well, he could pretend not to know what he was doing and have Pitch start helping him…

Jack frowned hard. Man, this was hard. How could he plan an entire date so far ahead? It was going to kill him. He had to make this fun and romantic, but not uncomfortable for Sera… Little kids didn't usually like mushy gushy stuff… He had a feeling Sera wouldn't really like a make-out session.

"Sheesh…" he exhaled unhappily. "This sucks…" He definitely wanted it to be something special, and now he couldn't even think of anything. Tapping a pencil on the desk in the café, Jack chewed his lower lip. The food thing was actually a good point to start… Food was always good… The way to a man's heart is through his stomach after all.

Jack sent Pitch a text. "Does Sera like ants on a log?" Pitch said she usually picked off the raisins, but ate them anyway. Oka… So… Maybe no ants on logs… Maybe everything else he found. Ughh, this was hard...

He scribbled for hours in notebooks. Nothing sounded good… Nothing. It was really getting in the way of his work. All he could think about was this possible date with Pitch. He couldn't think of ice cream, or shelling out soft serve vanillas, or peering over the counter at little kids, and… Wait… That… That might just be it. He could go back to how he met them. He could plan something around the shop. Oohoo! He was grinning ear to ear. He could work with this! He actually might be able to work with this!

_Okay, so, guys… Three people so far have asked for no smut… But everyone else has asked for Rated M… So… Yeah…_

_Oh, and:: Angelwithashotgun: The Nightmare story was based off a drawing… It was supposed to be pretty weird. I wanted to show everyone what I felt when I looked at the picture._


	25. Watermelon

_Hey guys! I'm finally alive again! Yaaaaayyyy! Hopefully you haven't lost interest in my stuff yet. (Hopefully I haven't either…)_

**Just Eat The Ice Cream- Chapter Twenty Four: Watermelon**

Jack had just sat down. _Literally_ just sat down when his phone went off. Groaning, he pulled it out and answered it blindly. It was Pitch, to his delight.

"Hi Jack, sorry to bother you if you're at work," he began

Not being the best at hiding his excitement, Jack interrupted cheerfully, "Nah, no prob! Whassup?"

Pitch stuttered at being cut off. "W-well, Sera wanted you to come over tonight. She wants to make ice cream with you." Jack beamed. He could always switch plans right? Maybe? Well, Sera was a good planner. Maybe he could get her in on it.

He practically ran to their house. (Speed walking doesn't count, right?) He timed himself- six minutes. Pitch looked startled to see him at the door so quickly. But seeing how he was huffing and puffing, he quickly smiled. "Did you run to get here?" he asked, watching as Jack trudged into the house and flopped onto the couch. Sera ran over and climbed onto Jack's stomach, laying upon him and smiling into his face.

"No," Jack replied, pouting, "I just walked really really fast."

Pitch rolled his eyes. "Need a glass of water?" Jack nodded furiously before throwing his head back down.

The moment he left the room, Jack asked Sera, "Hey, do you think you could get your daddy to come to the ice cream shop tomorrow? I had an idea."

Smiling, she said, "Okay! But only if I get ice cream!" Jack told her there was no way she wasn't getting ice cream.

When Pitch came back, Jack sat up, Sera sliding down into his lap, and accepted the offered glass of water. Jack was happy hearing the clink of ice cubes. Pitch sat next to him and Jack went to set the glass on the coffee table.

"Use a coaster," Pitch said, grabbing his wrist before he had the chance to set it down. Jack pouted at him.

He grabbed one, waved it in front of Pitch's nose, and set the glass on it. Once again, Pitch was rolling his eyes. "Don' make fun of me," Jack whined unhappily, falling over into Pitch's lap. Seraphina immediately did the same thing to Jack, reaching up and poking her father's elbows. (Jack was poking his chin.) Smirking, Jack said, "You look really pretty from below." Pitch blinked down at him, confused for a moment, before realizing the innuendo and blushing brightly. Jack laughed. "And you're cute when you blush. Dude- how are you still single?"

Pitch proceeded to push Jack off his lap, grabbing Sera and saving her from tumbling to the floor. Jack frowned at him from the ground. "Do I still look good even from way down there?"

"Yeah," Jack replied, "You've got a nice chin…" Now Pitch was scowling at him, cheeks still a little red.

"You're not invited back next time," he said.

Laughing, Jack said, "I think that's up to Sera to decide." He gave Pitch a mammoth grin when she nodded with a proud squeak. "There you have it," Jack said.

Pitch gave him a light kick. "Just go make the ice cream, you silly little boy." Jack pouted at him for that, but got to his feet and made ready to make ice cream.

They were only making chocolate, but the thing it was made in was a big plastic ball. They all sat down on the floor and rolled it around, passing it to each other, to mix up the ingredients. Sera had a harder time with it, mostly because the ball was as big as the space her legs spread to. But it was still fun. Jack made a little teasing joke at Pitch about how good he was with playing with balls. He got kicked again for that. (He didn't miss the bright red hue to his cheeks, though.)

As he pushed the ball back to Pitch, Jack asked, "So are we gonna even eat this?"

Pitch nodded. "Sera and I already prepared brownies. We were going to make brownie sundaes to share."

"How many?" Jack asked curiously, "This didn't seem like that much stuff. Will it make enough ice cream?"

"Well, daddy can share with you!" Sera said, shouting a little, "Cuz he doesn't like sweets and I don't want him eating my ice cream!" Jack smirked. Sera, you adorable little mastermind. Goodness, if this kept up he would be dating Pitch in no time.

Looking to the black haired alien man, Jack asked, "Are we sharing a spoon?" Pitch rolled his eyes and kept playing their rolling game.

After about half an hour of just doing this the homemade ice cream was finally ready. Pitch took the brownies out, set them in the bottom of two bowls, scooped ice cream on top, and then Sera poured chocolate syrup on the top. (Literally poured. Jack could no longer see the ice cream.)

They went and sat over by the TV. Ironically enough, Jack and Pitch weren't sharing a spoon. Sera basically began mashing hers into one big chocolatey mess. And then… Neither Pitch nor Jack moved to take their first bites. Jack chewed his lower lip. The tension… Looking at Pitch, he was going to tell him to take the first bite, but Pitch quickly said, "You're the guest, go ahead."

And so, Jack tried their crazy chocolate explosion. It was actually really good. He smiled as Pitch took his own first bite. Just before he went to eat it, Jack suddenly had a thought.

Jumping forward, he stopped him from eating and said, "Wait.. We're sharing…" Pitch gave him a confused look. Taking another spoonful onto his own spoon, Jack offered it to Pitch. His cheeks got red when he realized what Jack was insinuating.

"Uh, no, Jack, that's okay…" he started. But as he spoke, Jack pushed his spoon into his mouth. (Did he almost choke him? Yes.)

Jack smiled when Pitch slowly pulled his head back. (No ice cream left on the spoon.) Pointing to himself, Jack said, "Now you do me." (Heeheehee, hawhawhaw.)

Jack made sure to never take his eyes off Pitch's as he ate the ice cream. This was a good start to a possible, hopeful, relationship. Well, was. Jack started swallowing the spoon. Now he gagged and basically spat all of his ice cream out onto Pitch.

Sera looked horrified for a full second before she broke into fits of laughter. Pitch looked shocked. Jack felt like dying in a hole.

"Sorry…" he muttered weakly.

Sighing, getting up, Pitch said, "It's okay. I'll just go clean off…" Jack mentally kicked himself in the nuts for that terrible move. Sera was still laughing. Jack pouted at her, but that made her laugh harder.

When Pitch came back, he had several napkins in hand. (I wonder why.) He sat back down next to Jack and looked at the embarrassed teen. He blinked and then smiled gently.

Reaching forward, Pitch said, "You've got syrup all over your chin." He dabbed it away with the paper napkin. Jack smiled gently at him.

"Do I have any on my lip?" Jack asked, puckering them purposely. Pitch gave him a 'you're an idiot' face, and Jack's face broke into a grin.

"You're hopeless," he said, turning back to the ice cream.

Mentally Jack was thinking, you can say that again, I just screwed up a really good chance to make you hot for me.

Jack was, however, bold enough to try his terrible ice cream sharing trick again. (This time it worked.) They timed it perfectly so that they both were putting the spoons into their mouths at the exact same time. It felt so much more romantic that way. Jack was pretty much positive that if Pitch hadn't been so shy they would have kissed right then.

After their night of fun chocolate treats was over, and Jack ad to leave, Sera begged him not to go. He told her he had to, just because he did in fact have work the next morning, but said they'd see him real soon.

Looking at the tall man behind him, Jack said, smiling, "I had a real fun time playing with balls with you, Pitch," he said. Pitch scowled at him, so Jack took that as his moment to stand on his toes and plant a kiss on his nose. Pitch looked shocked by that one. "Maybe we could do it again sometime?"

Pitch stared at Jack as he made his way down the first two steps of their stairs.

Jack had just lifted his foot to go to the third step when Pitch said his name. Turning his head back around, trying to pivot, he went to ask what, but was cut off. By a very unexpected pair of lips.

…On his nose…

Jack was cursing in his head. Pitch-what the heck!? Brave enough to kiss him, just not on the lips!?

Looking up at him after the short kiss, Jack frowned curiously.

"Y-you had… syrup…" Pitch whispered nervously. Blinking, Jack smirked brightly.

"Yeah?" he asked, "You sure I don't have any on my lip?"

_Gaaaahhhhhhh… FINALLY. I needed that! Sorry I've been off so long, guys. Guess who cried multiple times this week? THIS LOSER. I guess I get depressed easily? Nobody else is allowed to cry until next week- Got it?!_


	26. Buttercrunch

_Heeheeeheee! I got an AWESOME birthday Present! MUSIC! I got the POTC soundtracks! *Squealing* I'm such a band geek, you guys don't even KNOW. Least manly person on the planet? Yup. Probably me. _

_Sorry I've been away so long. I've been facing a lot of bouts of depression. Which isn't like me. Apparently my whole last two weeks have just sucked. And have been so busy that I've literally gotten about an hour to myself every night there hasn't been a power outage. (How does it happen every night for three nights!? It wasn't even raining!)_

_Anyway. I'm back! As you can tell by my useless ranting. Hahaha. _

_Hey. I want everyone reading right now to eat ice cream at some point after reading this. I want ice cream… I don't have any… DO IT FOR ME._

**Just Eat The Ice Cream—Chapter Twenty Five: Buttercrunch**

Jack had honestly hope Pitch would kiss him right then. He wanted him to. It was the perfect moment. But, no. There he was… Stuttering and blushing and looking away shyly. He wanted to hit him for ruining the moment.

"Well, um… You should probably be going now, huh…?" Pitch whispered, glancing back up at Jack. Jack frowned.

"I could stay if you want me to," he said, trying not to sound desperate yet deliberately trying to sound as desperate as possible at the same time. He didn't think he was doing a very good job of it. Pitch was still looking shy. Jack was probably strong-willed and bold enough to make the first move here. (Hadn't he already?) But for some reason he really really wanted to see if Pitch was willing to risk their relationship and just show him how he felt. Oddly enough it meant a lot to him to know Pitch was willing to risk everything to be with him.

Pitch swallowed. "N-no, that's… that's alright… We've kept you from work long enough…" Jack frowned again.

Looking at Pitch's feet for a moment, then back up into is face, he asked, "Can I at least have a kiss goodbye?"

"Nope. Apparently I can't have an effing kiss goodbye," Jack hissed to himself as he walked back to his apartment. Pitch hadn't kissed him. He wanted that kiss. And he didn't get it.

Stupid shy jerk. Stupid handsome shy jerk. Stupid handsome awkward shy jerk. Stupid adorable handsome awkward shy jerk. Why does he have to be so shy!?

It didn't even seem like Pitch to be shy. He was always so confident when they weren't intimate. Was that the only problem? That he was afraid of intimacy? Or opening himself up to someone? Didn't really make sense.

"Everyone has their insecurities, he says…" Jack muttered, hands in his pockets, "Well… Everyone has strengths, too…" Obviously Pitch's wasn't being romantic.

Jack groaned. He'd known the guy for a while now. (It felt like longer than it really was.) It felt like Pitch would be braver than that. Or at least more of a jerk about it. Then again, he never really asked him why talking to someone he was attracted to freaked him out so much.

Had he not been asking enough?

Chewing his fingernail, Jack pondered this for another hour or so before giving up and telling himself that things would work out if he could just get Pitch to come to the ice cream shop. He had a plan. It had to work. Pitch wouldn't be able to weasel out of it.


	27. Chocolate Almond

_*Screaming* *LOTS AND LOTS OF SCREAMING* HOLY F*CK WHERE HAVE I BEEN!? GAAAHHHHH! COLLEGE IS KILLING MY LIFE!_

_SOMEONE SEND HELP_

**Just Eat The Ice Cream—Chapter Twenty Six: Chocolate Almond**

Jack had been waiting at the shop all morning, trying not to scream each time someone walked through the front doors. He wanted so badly for Pitch to come in. He wanted this relationship to just be official so he didn't have to suffer through this anymore. He wanted to be able to kiss Pitch and punch him because they were finally together and he would be allowed to do that. He had never been so obsessed with a relationship before. Obviously that meant this one was serious. Pitch was perfect for him, and Jack wasn't denying that. Why did Pitch seem to think he was so undeserving of him? Jack was totally content spending every day in his house with him and Sera.

He chewed his lip as he grumbled unhappily. Pitch was under-appreciative of his own features.

That was why this had to work. It had to work. If things didn't go his way….

Jack could have sworn he heard a girlish shriek when a familiar head of black hair walked in. He had to have imagined it, though. Nobody reacted. Maybe his inner monologue was going a little haywire. Sera was rushing up to him like always, looking happy and cute. Yeah… Nobody had screamed…

"Hey there handsome," Jack said cheekily to the tall man walking after his daughter. Pitch gave him a 'you little smart ass' look and then pried Seraphina off his legs. Jack was ignoring the fact that Bella was in today along with Bubbles. He hoped that Bubbles was just teaching her how to not kill anyone while in the shop. He really really hoped that the snickering laughter he heard wasn't from Bubbles. He hoped that Bella was laughing at the fact that a little girl had to be crowbarred off his legs.

He also hoped that Bella wasn't trying to help get Sera off. Bella plus doing anything meant pain and misery for Jack for at least three days. No helping, Bella. No. No, no, no, no.

"You okay?" Pitch asked all of a sudden, breaking Jack free of the shackles his inner monologue had put around him.

Blinking up at him, Jack tried to look comfortable. "Yeah, sorry. Just… Thinking," he replied, shifting his weight. Pitch didn't look convinced. So, his natural tactic to avoid this conflict was to turn to Sera and ask her what she wanted for ice cream.

As he asked, Jack sent a text to a co-conspirator friend to help him make everything go the way he wanted. Jack was happy to give Seraphina her sugary treat. He looked to Pitch after giving her the ice cream.

"You want anything today?" he asked, smiling as he noticed his friend waltz into the shop.

Pitch smiled back. "The smallest size you have of French vanilla," he responded, folding his arms over his chest, "Give me anything bigger and I'm pretty sure I'll vomit." Jack was nodding as he listened, watching his friend wander closer to where they were. Time to put their plan into-

Bella was mopping. Jack's friend got tripped by the clumsy girl. And as he fell, he knocked Pitch forward. And Pitch fell into Jack, and they all went tumbling to the floor in a heap of painful groaning.

Pitch helped everyone back to their feet- Sera had run over to see if everyone was okay. Jack heard Bubbles laughing. Scowling, Jack brushed himself off. Okay, so part one of the plan was scratched…

Pitch's fingers reached toward Jack's face and wiped some dirty water off his cheek. Jack couldn't help but smile at him. At least one good thing came of Bella ruining his idea. His friend was looking to him for help. Jack just shrugged and motioned with his hand forward.

"I'll get your baby sized ice cream, then, mister no candy ever," he said, smirking at Pitch as he walked back to the counters. Pitch didn't really respond to that, just rolled his eyes. The instant Jack took a step, however, he slid on a massive puddle left by Bella. Yelping, he tumbled forward for the second time.

He groaned in pain. He had hit his head on the counter. He was sure of that. Oh, God, what if he had a concussion?

He felt Pitch lifting him back to his feet. "How 'bout I walk you?" he offered. Jack nodded as he rubbed his rapidly bruising head. Pitch was looking at him with concern, but Jack was having a hard time seeing anything besides spots of light.

Pitch stood him next to the barrels of ice cream. Jack's friend made a comment at this, saying they looked like a couple at the hospital pointing out their baby. Jack smiled weakly at that, Pitch blushed.

"Well apparently our baby is French," Jack said, smiling up at his tall friend.

Pitch frowned. "How exactly would that happen?" he asked, before his face took a more mischievous light, "You're French and you didn't tell me, aren't you? I knew there was a reason I hated you." Jack stuck his tongue out at him for that and went to work trying to scoop out the vanilla.

He fell forward, balance completely gone. Pitch caught him before he collapsed in the ice cream, but only barely. Jack was practically limp. His head was tingling. He couldn't see much of anything. And he felt tears running down his cheeks.

"Jack? Jack, are you alright? Do you need me to take you to the hospital? Jack? Jack, answer me!" he could vaguely hear Pitch's voice next to him, but he was too distraught to understand if he had been talking in one big sentence or if he was fading between gaps and only hearing some words.

Jack gave an unhappy little sob. "This wasn't how it was supposed to happen," he whimpered. He felt like he was being pushed into a chair. It felt comfy. He sort of heard Pitch asking what he meant. Maybe. Had he said that? Yeah... Definitely a concussion. Maybe some even more serious brain damage...

"I "as supposed to end up asking you out," Jack said, still crying. From pain or disappointment, he didn't know anymore. Both seemed like the only things he could feel right now. He heard Pitch say what. "My friend was gonna accidentally push you into me and we were gonna kiss and I was gonna ask if you wanted… Ahh… I don't really remember… But you were gonna say no and I was gonna do it anyway…"

Jack heard Pitch asking him what he was talking about.

"I wanted you to kiss me," he mumbled, head falling back. He felt like he was on a bed now. Beds were nice. Nice… Soft… Bed… "You were finally gonna kiss me an' then we were gonna be a family an' Sera woul haff a muumm…" He felt like sleeping. Sleep was fantastic.

"I'm taaayyyrred…" Jack moaned, eyes falling shut. Though it made little difference. He couldn't really see anyway. "When I wake up will you still like me?"

He felt a hand squeezing his somewhere far far away. Where was that hand…? "I already like you," Pitch said just beside his ear, "Try to stay awake until the doctor gets here…"

In his sleep Jack smiled. Pitch's voice was the last thing he remembered before he found himself being patted awake by a pair of tiny hands.

Blue eyes blinking open, Jack found Seraphina right in his face.

She grinned brightly at him. "Daddy, he's up!" she shouted. Jack turned his head in the direction she was looking and instantly regretted it. The fast motion caused a tremor of pain to rock through his head.

Pitch was standing there. He smiled down at Jack before pulling up a chair and sitting next to him. "Feel any better?" he asked, taking Jack's hand. This looked like a hospital room. Was Jack in the hospital? How did he get here? He didn't get hurt that bad. He'd been hurt worse.

Jack gave a tiny nod. "Yeah… What happened…?"

"You hit your head!" Sera replied, bouncing on Jack's stomach, making him nearly lurch with pain.

Pitch stilled her. "You got a pretty bad concussion from it," he told Jack, "Doctor says you'll probably be suffering the after effects of it for at least a month…"

Jack frowned. "How long was I asleep?" he asked, looking around the sterile room.

"A few hours," Pitch replied, "Long enough for both Sera and I to take a nap while we waited for you to wake up." Jack smiled. Pitch taking a nap sounded really cute. And Sera sleeping on his lap sounded even better.

"Wish I coulda joined you…" he hummed sadly, looking down a little.

Pitch smiled. "You did," he whispered, "In a way…" Jack gave him a little smile back. He was surprised when the tall man pressed a kiss to his lips.

"You're an idiot," he whispered, after pulling away from him, "You're an absolute idiot." Jack gave him a confused look. "Did you honestly think just pushing us together would get me to kiss you?"

Cheeks going red, Jack muttered, "I had more planned out than that… I just… Can't remember any of it…" Pitch rolled his eyes with a smile.

"You do realize that you're still an idiot," Pitch said, rubbing Jack's knuckles tenderly, "Didn't you think I was trying?"

"Trying what?" Jack asked in response.

"To show you that I was attracted to you."

Jack made a very unconvinced face. "Pitch, I tried to get you to kiss me more times than I can count. You always chickened out."

"I know," Pitch said, "But you have to give me credit for trying." Jack laughed a little.

"He always talked about you," Sera said, smiling, "I knew he liked you for like forever! Daddy was just too scared!" Jack smiled at her. Sera was certainly a chip off the old block. He looked to Pitch.

He smirked. "You talked about me _all the time_?"

"Oh shut up. You're lucky you're hurt or I'd punch you right now."


End file.
